This is gonna be fun
by BlueAutumn12
Summary: Ace wakes up in his seventeen year old body after the events of Marineford, and promises that this time he will be strong enough to protect his family. In which the Spades are slowly driven to insanity by their Captain, and the Marines are not amused.
1. Awakening

Ace had never expected to wake up again.

In all fairness this was not an unusual expectation for someone who had just taken a fist full of lava through the chest, in a desperate attempt to save their little brother.

Which was why Ace was understandably confused when he awoke once more. Blinking up at the night sky in confusion, the young pirate attempted to reorient himself "I'm alive?" The whispered words echoed loudly amidst the ocean waves.

Forcing himself into an upright position Ace tried to evaluate his surroundings only to let out a soft gasp of recognition, he knew small boat he was currently sat on. How could he not?

It was the same boat that had carried him off Dawn island all those years ago. The same boat that had been destroyed a mere one week into his journey in a conflict with the Marines. "No way in hell..."

Looking down at his hands for the first time since he'd awoken, Ace took in the lack of a log pose on his too skinny wrist as well as the calm unchanging weather and the tranquil blue sea surrounding him. This was east blue.

With eyes widened in shock Ace didn't hesitate to tear off his shirt, only to stare in confusion at the ruined jolly Rodger on his back, and the hideously burnt flesh that had replaced the majority of it. Moving slowly, almost as if in a trance, Ace lifted his hand and watched in wonderment as it turned to flame "What the _hell_ is going on?"

The softly whispered question went unanswered in the silence of the night, as Ace tried to re-evaluate what had happened.

Because despite the ruined tattoo and intact Logia abilities, Ace was definitely in his slightly less developed seventeen year old body. Meaning that if he really was in the past, as he suspected he was, it was still far too early for him to have his devil fruit, let alone his tattoo.

Shaking his head Ace decided not to question these inconsistencies further for now. There was no point looking a gift horse in the mouth and despite the curious circumstances he now found himself in, Ace was _grateful_.

He had been given a _second chance_ to try and help make things right, he wasn't going to waste his time wondering why. He had the chance to change _everything_ , this time Thatch would survive, Teach would be dealt with and Marineford would _never_ happen again.

Last time his family had been willing to go to war with the _World_ for him. And now he had a chance to repay that loyalty, and an opportunity to honour his promise to Luffy. He wouldn't die again, not this time.

First, he had to get rid of the remains of his tattoo though. The thought jolted through him like a physical pain, but there was nothing that could be done about it. The remains of the Jolly Roger were just big enough that it could be identified by anyone who knew what they were looking for.

And in a timeline where Ace had yet to meet the Whitebeard pirates, going around with the defaced remains of their Jolly Roger on his back was just asking for trouble. And so, it would have to be covered up at the soonest possible chance.

Pushing aside the hurt that came from the thought of covering up Oyaji's jolly Roger, Ace let a smile grace his face at the thought his next step. Reforming the Spade pirates.

The crazy men and women who had claimed him as their Captain and had _refused_ to leave his side even whilst he was undertaking a crazy murder spree against the strongest man in the world. Who were still there fighting for him alongside the rest of the crew at Marineford even after his heritage had been revealed.

Ace loved the Whitebeard pirates, but the spades would forever be his first crew. And Ace would never want to undertake this crazy as hell journey without them. Of course, there were reasons for reforming his crew outside of his own selfish desire to see them again.

The major one being that his little brother wasn't the only one in the family that had the habit of recruiting new crew members after saving their lives. Meaning that if Ace didn't bother to go and recruit them again, then chances were that half the spade crew would be dead within the month anyway.

So, their recruitment was definitely a priority. Ace was looking forward to seeing them again, he had missed his family in the month's he'd been stuck in Impel Down or trying to track down Teach. Teach...

The smile that had been so warm on his face mere moments ago, died a painful and sudden death at the thought of the man he had once called his brother. The treacherous bastard who had started the events leading up to Marineford. This time round Teach needed to be dealt with before he had a chance to hurt Thatch.

Unfortunately, as it was, even without the yami yami no mi, Ace currently didn't have the strength to deal with Teach (and didn't that hurt to admit). And even if he did Ace would still be unable to act unless he had evidence of Teach going traitor. If not he'd be targeted by the full force of the Whitebeard pirates, desperate for revenge for the man they still thought of as a comrade.

So, Ace would have to be patient. He'd bide his time, reform his crew, stay under the radar a little longer this time and would use that time to get stronger. Then he'd go meet his family once more and this time he'd be strong enough to help protect them.

 _Authors note_

 _Hi to anyone reading this, I've been planning a story like this for a while (because I love Ace and im still in denial about Marineford in general) but I haven't had the time to write it till now, to anyone who's read my first fic home thank you so much for the support so far! and I hope you enjoyed the story so far and please leave a review to share your opinion! :)_


	2. Getting started

It took less than a day to get to the nearest island and find a tattoo parlour willing to cover up the remains of the jolly Roger on his back. And despite Ace's reluctance to cover up the remains of the mark that had become his pride, he still knew exactly what design he wanted to replace it.

And so it was that several hours (and several thousand Beri) later, Ace exited the tattoo parlour, fragmented Jolly Roger completely covered by a beautiful blue phoenix with fiery outstretched wings rising up from a field of flames and hibiscuses. It was beautiful and heart-breaking all at once.

The phoenix was just different enough from Marco's Zoan form that it wouldn't get any questions, but it was enough to remind Ace of what he was fighting for. Or more specifically _who_ he was fighting for.

Feeling the sunshine on his face, Ace tipped his hat up and stared up at the blue skies above him before letting out a wide grin. He was approximately two days away from the island where he'd recruited his first mate Dusty, and after that it would take him a further two weeks to track down the remaining eleven spades and procure his ship the Card deck.

Ace may have planned to stay under the radar a little longer than he had done in his original timeline, but that didn't mean he couldn't pull any of the crazy stunts that had made him so infamous the first time round. It just meant he couldn't get _caught_ doing them.

Ace's grin widened to shark like proportions, the Spades had always been good at doing subtle work, even if they had preferred to go big and flashy. And getting some recognition now could hopefully go a decent way in convincing the Whitebeards later on that Ace was an ally not an enemy.

It was also worth mentioning that Ace currently held a marineford sized grudge against the world government, in addition to a myriad of insider information on the marines, that the shitty geezer had accidentally let slip whilst he was visiting his grandson in Impel down.

Ace shuddered at the reminder of his prison cell and shook his head resolve firm in his mind. _Never again_.

He needed to get his ship and crew first, but after that...

The teen erupted into slightly manic laughter scaring off most of the passers-by on the street. Getting his laughter under control Ace made his way back towards his boat whistling cheerfully under his breath, this was going to be fun.

Several miles away at the nearest marine base, the commodore in charge shivered as a dark sense of foreboding rushed through him. Something big was coming, and whatever it was, the Marine had a feeling it wouldn't end well for him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp stared down at the latest batch of bounty posters and sighed. It had been several weeks since the old Marine had gone to Dawn island only to find his oldest grandchild missing and he was, for lack of a better term, incredibly confused.

When Luffy had originally revealed that Ace had run off to become a pirate Garp had expected an easily followed trail of destruction and havoc everywhere the teen went. Instead? There was nothing.

There had been practically no sightings of the freckled teen, since he had first set sail and while Garp was overjoyed at the fact his grandson hadn't immediately run off and gotten the biggest bounty he was capable of, he was starting to get slightly worried.

Not too worried mind you, Garp knew the brat was strong enough for just about anything east blue could throw at him, and there hadn't been enough time since he'd set off for Ace to have made it to the grand line already. So logically Garp knew his grandson was probably fine.

But the lack of news was still somewhat concerning. And it wasn't like Garp could just ask if anyone had seen his grandson, because that would draw attention to him, and that was the last thing Garp wanted. Especially if the reason he'd heard nothing about his grandson was because he'd finally decided to abandon his ideas of piracy.

Garp paused, maybe that was it! Maybe the brat had finally seen the light and was going to join the Marines! Whistling cheerfully at his delusions, Garp picked up the latest marine reports and felt his hope die a swift and painful death upon reading the first page.

Ace's name and picture may have been missing from the report (the little shit was too sneaky to be caught unless he wanted to, probably due to years of jungle hunting, and attempted hiding from Garp himself) but this little stunt still had his grandson written all over it.

"GOD DAMN IT SHITTY BRAT!"

Somewhere across the ocean Ace stopped what he was doing and promptly hightailed it back to his ship as fast as his legs could carry him before demanding his crew to set sail as fast as humanly possible.

Looking at the newspaper he'd managed to swipe the fire logia couldn't help but grin, he was probably going to regret his actions later, but for now he'd enjoy it. At least he was sure to have gotten on the Whitebeards radar.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco was just finishing filling out the last of his paperwork when the vibrations started. And while the laughter that accompanied the shaking was a familiar sound, it was unusual for it to be so loud that it actually affected the ship.

Realising he wasn't going to get any more work done with his father's laughter still rocking the ship, the first division commander decided it would be easier to go and track down the cause, rather than attempting to wait the vibrations out. Walking out onto the deck Marco was confused to see that Whitebeard wasn't the only person bent over in laughter.

Noticing Thatch nearby, the Phoenix grabbed his brother's shoulder "What the hell's set everyone off yoi?" Still shaking from laughter, as well as the increasing vibrations of the ship, Thatch held up what appeared to be todays addition of the paper.

"Some..Someone in east blue snuck into," the chef's explanation was cut short by his helpless laughter.

"Thatch, I swear to god, finish the gods damned explanation yoi." Shoving down one last amused chuckle the chef held up the paper once more, easily displaying the large Ace of spades in the centre of the page.

"Some unknown snuck into several different marine bases all around east blue and stole the psychological evaluation of every marine ranked Commodore or higher they could find, before sending a copy to each and every publishing agent from the blues to the new world."

The Phoenix's eyes widened in shock "No way." Thatch nodded an eager grin bright on his face, as laughter danced in his eyes. "Yes way!"

"And the best part is, is that no one has a clue who did it! The only hint the guy left was the Ace of spades card he sent the publishing agencies alongside the reports. The Marines are baying for blood, but no one can identify anyone capable of infiltrating several different marine bases and getting away completely clean. Or at least not out of the pirates currently in East blue."

Marco raised an eyebrow in question "Revolutionaries?" The fourth division commander was quick to shake his head "Not their style, I doubt any higher-ranking revolutionary would go so far out of their way to release such harmless yet humiliating information, and I doubt any of the lower ranks would have the skill to pull off such a large scale operation."

Marco nodded in realisation "I see, and the same circumstances apply for pirates in the area as well. There are no known crews in the area that could manage something like this, but a new crew shouldn't have been able to pull it off so well. And in theory the marines should have noticed a new crew with this amount of skill forming..."

Thatch nodded in confirmation as the Phoenix trailed off thoughtfully "Has Haruta's information network been able to uncover anything else on the culprit yoi?" Thatch shook his head.

"Nothing so far, but then again he's spent the last half hour cackling over the Den Den Mushi with one of his contacts after learning about one of the Vice Admiral's pathological fear of cushions..."

The chef trailed off as both commanders simultaneously looked over at their shortest sibling who was now giggling in a frankly _disturbing_ manner...Dragging their eyes away from the slightly worrying sight the two commanders silently agreed to continue their conversation whilst pretending they hadn't seen anything.

"Anyway, as I was saying, the marines have nicknamed the person responsible as Spade, creative I know, and they're currently offering a relatively decent reward for any information on the guy. I think they're less concerned with the actual information released and more annoyed about the blatant security breach."

Marco stared at the prominently displayed Ace of Spades and smirked "The culprit certainly seems like an interesting guy yoi." Thatch gave an eager nod of agreement "Anyone who's capable of causing that much chaos is definitely alright in my books, hopefully the guy will do something else interesting soon!"

Chuckling at his brothers excited expression Marco grinned "I think they will. He or she left a calling card to identify themselves with, I doubt they'd bother if they weren't planning on doing something similar again in future."

"Good because I think Haruta's already _this_ close to asking Oyaji to recruit the guy." Marco let out an amused snort "Well then I wish Spade the best of luck in trying to avoid an eager Haruta. I'm gonna go ask Oyaji to turn down the laughter a little bit before someone gets thrown overboard by the shaking."

"Have fun! And when you get the chance I seriously recommend reading the paper Marco!" Giving his brother an indulgent smile Marco couldn't help but sigh as he heard particularly loud chuckle followed by a telling splash and the loud cry of "Man overboard!"

At least no one could ever say that being a Whitebeard pirate as boring.

 _Authors note_

 _So that's chapter two done! The poor marines are gonna have their hands full for the next few chapters *evil grin* On the matter of Aces crew I can freely admit to having no clue what their actual names are but I think I heard Dusty was the first mate from someone? Anyway, thank you to Eyilin, Nacchu, AstralSakura and LittleOneTale for the reviews, I especially loved LittleOneTale's request to "make them suffer" XD hopefully this is a decent start for Marine suffering, next chapter should be out soon! Hope you enjoyed!_


	3. Rumors

Ace grinned as the last of his crew mates settled into the large room they had jokingly labelled as 'the plotting room'. It had been a couple of weeks since the spades had reformed, and a few days since they had infiltrated several of the nearby marine bases.

And so far, everything had been going according to plan, which is why it was time to move onto the next step "Ok, now that everyone's here it's time to get started with part two of our plan! First of all, though good job to everyone who helped with the marine base infiltrations."

There were a few hoots and laughs before the crew settled into silence once more "Now as you know, the marines are currently offering a substantial reward for anyone with information on the notorious Spade! Not only that but I've heard several information brokers are also looking for the same info, so we're going to spread some _confusion_."

The Shark like grin on Ace's face, was mirrored perfectly by his crew "First of all Alice," Ace pointed to the only female member of his crew "have you had any contact with the marines since you turned pirate, and would anyone from your home town expect you to turn pirate?"

The petite female shipwright snorted "I've had no contact with the marines Captain, and there's certainly no one back home who would expect me to go pirate. Hell, I didn't expect me to go pirate before you saved me from those slaver bastards."

Ace gave a slightly grim nod at the reminder of what he'd saved his female crew mate from, but continued on none the less "Excellent, then our next plan of action is for you to go to the marines and tell them all about the beautiful blond woman with the spade tattoo you saw wondering around the local marine base."

There was momentary silence as the pirates stared at their captain in incomprehension, before bursting into laughter "A beautiful woman with a spade tattoo? you really think they're going to buy that Captain?"

Ace shot a smug grin at his sniper Deuce "I don't think they're going to buy it, I _know_ they will. What the marines don't like to advertise is the fact that they can't _actually_ be everywhere at once, meaning a lot of their Intel actually comes from civilians. So the process for gathering Intel is that they check what island the Intel gatherer is from as well as if they have any possible ties to piracy."

"Seeing as dear Alice here has had no previous association with any pirates, and given that her current pirate associates have no bounties yet, it means that on the surface Alice looks like a pretty reliable Intel gatherer. So it should look like her only ulterior motive for revealing such information is to claim the reward money."

Alice gave an enthusiastic nod "Gotcha Captain." Ace grinned "Excellent, just in case of trouble Gray can go with you as back up, if anyone asks, you're dating and that's why he's with you." Ace couldn't help but smile at the chorus of laughter and wolf whistles the statement brought (in the original timeline it had taken over two years for the two to realise they liked each other, hopefully this would help speed up the process a little bit.) Still smiling Ace turned his attention towards his chef Small.

"In the meantime, Small, I want you to get disguised and go to the shadiest back alley bar you can find and have a couple of drinks before boasting as loudly as possible about your beautiful Captain Lady Spade and how she faked her death from the marines."

"There's likely to be at least one information gatherer in there so the news should spread pretty quickly and hopefully it'll get back to the marines at some point and lend credit to Alice's information."

The laughter got louder as Ace grinned "Other than that, Small I want you to keep an ear out for any word of the guy we talked about earlier. Otherwise feel free to make up as many details as you want, let's lead the marines on a wild goose chase! We need to stay under the radar till we hit the grandline but after that we'll be in the clear!"

Amongst the cheers and hoots Ace's newest recruit Paddy timidly raised his hand "I get not wanting to make the journey harder on ourselves Captain, but why are we hiding who we are in the first place?" Ace's grin turned into a slight grimace as he repeated the cover story he'd come up with some weeks prior.

"That's right, you, Gray and Alice weren't there for that conversation... To make a long story short my Gramps is a high ranking marine and if he finds out I've gone pirate he might try and stop us, so I figure it's best to wait until we get into the grandline before my face is revealed."

It wasn't the truth, but Ace couldn't exactly say he needed time to get stronger to help save his future family, that would just make him sound crazy, or crazier anyway. Besides his reasoning gave him a plausible enough excuse for the extra training sessions he was forcing his crew to undertake.

Sure enough Alice and Gray nodded in easy acceptance whilst Paddy paled slightly "When you say high ranking Marine, how high ranking are we talking about here Captain?" Ace gave a small shrug, vaguely amused at how the older crew members were watching the newer ones with sadistic glee shining through their eyes.

"He's a Vice Admiral." Paddy face planted "Of course he's a fucking vice admiral, of fucking course. why did I expect _anything_ different?!" Deuce snorted in amusement, drawing a weak glare from the newcomer "That's not even the worst part, ask the Captain which vice Admiral."

Paddy turned to face his Captain, a pleading expression in place "Do I even want to know?" Ace shook his head cheerfully "Probably not. But if I don't tell you now, one of the other numbskulls will most definitely blurt it out at the most inconvenient time possible."

Paddy let out a small whimper of resigned acceptance before nodding his head resolutely "Ok Captain, lay it on me." Ace's grin widened to shark like proportions he was having way too much fun with this but oh well "Garp." Paddy froze, looking at the rest of the crew for confirmation "Garp the hero? That Garp?"

Ace nodded "That's the one." Paddy buried his face in his hands as if trying to block out reality "Captain I want you to know that while I think that you're an amazing person, and I'd probably follow you to the ends of the earth. You're absolutely batshit _insane_."

Dusty let out a wry chuckle "You're only just realising this now?" Ace swatted the back of his first mate's head "Is that insubordination I hear?" The innocent smile he got back in return was incredibly unconvincing "Of course not Captain."

Giving a light snort of disbelief Ace gestured to Alice, Gray and Small "Anyway meeting adjourned for now, we'll discuss the rest after you three get back, so go on ahead. In the meantime..."

A small shudder ran through the remaining Spade pirates at the sight of their Captain's gleeful expression "It's training time."

A few meters away from the ship Alice, Gray and Small let out a small sigh of combined relief at the missed training session. "We better get some more bandages while we're out, Doc was complaining about us running low after the last 'training session' the captain put us through."

Small snorted "You can say that again. Mind you it's not like we can say the training's not necessary, and it'll certainly make getting through the grandline easier when we get to it." The three pirates gave a nod of agreement, unanimously deciding to ignore the screams of pain coming from their crewmates left on the ship.

Giving one last shit eating grin to his two companions, Small turned towards the seedier section of the town "You two have fun on your date!"

Ignoring their retaliatory remarks Small scurried off to go find a bar, a large grin on his face, the Captain had given him complete and utter freedom with Lady Spades fake backstory. It was time to spread some madness.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp's left eye twitched as he stared down at the latest information on the woman now commonly referred to as Lady Spade. That fucking Brat. There was no way in hell that his grandson wasn't the one responsible for this mess, not after this latest stunt.

It had taken four days for the rumour that Spade was a beautiful blonde woman to spread throughout the blues, and by that time the culprit had struck again. This time several marine bases had been spray painted with an elegant looking spade, in the same vibrant orange shade as Ace's hat.

Not only that, but every marine base hit with a spade was also missing all of it's food stock along with certain medical supplies. But the worst part was that Spade had once more made off with stolen information, and sent it to be published.

This time it was mission reports denoting some of the more humiliating failures of the Marines of east blue. And honestly after reading through some of said reports Garp really couldn't blame anyone for thinking the marines were somewhat incompetent.

How one of the lieutenants had managed to let an entire group of pirates slip past him, after being distracted by their first mate in a dress stuffed with melons, was just plain _embarrassing_. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

But even though he was still sure his Grandson was behind these attacks, the old Marine was still at a loss as to why. The pranks may have been Ace's style, but the brat wasn't one to sit back and let others take credit for his work.

Nor was he the type to follow someone else which was why Garp had his doubts about whether this Spade woman existed in the first place.

Even if recent rumours did claim she was once an infamous pirate. One who faked her own death after her lover was heinously murdered by an ex-marine called Fredward, with something known as a vanishing cabinet.

And don't even get Garp started on the rumour that she was in the midst of a desperately passionate star-crossed relationship with Akainu...

But as he was saying, Garp was thoroughly befuddled by (what he was almost certain was) his grandson's actions. With the way he kept hitting marine bases it was almost as if he was looking for something, the real question was what?

Either way though... Garp's eye twitched once more as he looked down at the sketched version of the woman who had now gained the nickname Lady Spade. When he next saw his Grandson, he was in for some serious Fists of Love.

It was well known that if a photo of a pirate was unable to be provided then a sketch artist would sit down with whoever could offer information about the pirate and the image created would go on their bounty poster.

Garp just knew his brat of a grandson was behind this. Hell, Ace probably walked up to the marines himself and gave the description. A description which could essentially be summed up as 'the blonde female love child of Garp and Dandan with a spade tattoo on their cheek' the _utter_ Brat.

How the hell did that image match up with the earlier descriptions of 'a beautiful blonde lady' this was Ace's fault. He just knew it.

 _Authors note_

 _So I couldn't resist. I really really couldn't resist, my idea for the supposed Lady Spades appearance just popped into my head while I was finishing up the chapter and it wouldn't go away. Sorry Garp. Anyway to answer the question asked by both Freddo Fraud and GolDEin13 I am not planning on making this a romance story, and even if I add romance later its gonna be relegated to the background. thanks to Nachuu for mentioning Ace's first mate is actually masked Duece, due to the fact I don't know how to edit stuff i'll probably be leaving as Dusty as first mate, hope no one minds. Thanks to everyone else for the nice reviews and I hope you're enjoying the story so far!_

 _Akainu's troubles are just beginning *evil smile*_


	4. Realisation

Ace couldn't help but grin at his crew's horrified expressions. "Come on guys, it's not _that_ bad." Paddy held his head in his hands and let out a choked sob, causing Dusty to give him a sympathetic pat on the back. "We're all gonna die, I'm only nineteen, I don't want to die yet. Why do you do this to us Captain?!"

Deuce smirked at his wailing crew mate "Dunno what you're on about Paddy, this is gonna be fun." The (supposedly) sane members of the crew shot the sniper a sharp glare "Shut it Deuce, not everyone can be an adrenaline junkie like you are."

Snickering at Alice's outburst Ace gave a quick whistle to regain his crew's attention "I promise to make sure we all leave alive! We're not going to pick a fight with Red Hair and based on our lack of bounties I sincerely doubt we're gonna be attacked outright. Besides,"

The fire logia let out a sly smirk "we're finally in the Grand Line and the island on route to Shank's location is currently under the rule of a tyrannical pirate crew, called the yellow vipers or something like that. I think it's time for the Spades to stop hiding."

No one disagreed, and Ace could spot more than a few bloodthirsty grins, "So, who's up for a quick fight before we go meet an Emperor?" Enthusiastic shouts of agreement and outright laughter filled the small ship, and left a warmth in Ace's heart.

Everything had been going well so far, not one of his crew had a bounty, despite their recent antics against the marines. And both Ace and his crew were also much stronger than they had been the first time round, a few Spades had even started to unlock the basics of haki under their Captain's harsh (evil) training regime.

The only problem so far was Teach. After his betrayal in the original timeline, Haruta had somehow been able to uncover the fact that Teach had secretly been operating in the underworld for years under the name of Blackbeard.

So, in theory it should have been easy enough to find evidence of Blackbeard's misdeeds even this far back in the timeline. Even if Ace had doubted his ability to link it back to Teach himself.

But the bastard was _sneaky_ , and Ace been unable to find more than a whisper of the name Blackbeard both within underworld, or the Marines records. Of course, that might have been due to the fact that until now Ace had been limited to the information found in East blue.

But it still wasn't promising. Letting out a small sigh Ace couldn't help but a feel a large amount of respect for Haruta. He'd never realised how frustrating information gathering could be, and honestly Ace was far better suited to talking with his fists and lighting shit on fire.

Which unfortunately was not _at all_ helpful to his current goal of subtlety.

"Care for a drink Captain?" Snapping out of his thoughts Ace let out a huff of laughter and easily accepted the drink presented by his first mate. "Thanks Dusty." The man in the cowboy hat gave a small nod before settling down next to his Captain, a serious expression on his face.

"I know there's something bigger at play here Captain, bigger than you just avoiding your Grandfather at least." Ace opened his mouth to deny it, but he'd never been a fan of lying to those he cared about. "There is. Do you want to know what."

The older man stared at his Captain in consideration, some part of him knowing that if he asked, Ace would answer truthfully. Instead the cowboy shook his head and gave a small chuckle "I trust you Captain. If you think we need to know, you'll tell us."

Ace grinned and clinked his glass against his first mates in a silent promise. One day he'd tell his crew the truth about his heritage.

Ace wasn't naive, he knew once the spades reached a certain level of notoriety the world government would try to investigate his origins, and though he'd done his level best to erase any clues from the marine bases they'd visited in east blue, he knew eventually the truth would come out.

But this time, Ace would be prepared.

Ace was snapped out of his darker thoughts as he saw Doc attempting to steal his assistant, Quartz's, hat. Letting out a laugh the young Captain felt himself relax, he still needed information on BlackBeard, but Ace had time. For now he'd enjoy celebrating making it to the Grandline.

It would take the Spades a day to make it to the next island and then a further day and a half to find Shanks. He could relax for now. He was with his crew, he was safe.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco could tell he wasn't the only commander shooting concerned looks at Haruta. Honestly the youngest commander's smile was disturbing. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to want to deal with it, meaning as the oldest sibling it was automatically his responsibility.

Giving a heavy sigh, Marco ignored the grateful looks his siblings shot him and instead tapped Haruta on the shoulder snapping the younger out of his (hopefully) temporary bout of insanity "Something you'd like to share with us Haruta?"

The giggles trailed off as Haruta gave his oldest brother a beaming grin, before turning to look at their father "Oyaji we need to recruit Spade right now!"

Marco raised an eyebrow in askance, whilst Whitebeard let out an indulgent chuckle "Oh, and why's that Son?" Haruta held up the bounty poster for the aforementioned Lady Spade "Because anyone who played a prank this masterful is being wasted anywhere else!"

More of the Whitebeard pirates were listening in on the conversation now "What do you mean a prank commander?" Haruta grinned at the questioner.

"Glad you asked! Now as most of you should know, these wanted posters for the so called 'Lady Spade' were circulated last week, however despite all the rumours flying around, my network has confirmed that as of now only four people seem to have actually seen the woman the person."

Here Haruta's grin widened to epic proportions "Now this is where things start to get interesting, after the first stunt Spade pulled, two of these people, a couple, immediately go to inform the marines of what they'd seen before claiming the reward money for the information. On the same night person number three, a supposed crewmate of Lady Spade, goes to a local bar and after a few drinks, spills all the information he has on his Captain. All of which matches up with the couple's earlier information."

"Our final person shows up several days later with a matching story and a detailed description of the woman in question, resulting in the horrifying bounty poster we see before us. But the real kicker is, that the supposed pirate and the couple who went to marines have since been spotted together."

"Meaning not only have they all been fucking with the marines, but the marines have been _paying_ them for it!" Whitebeard wasn't the only one to let out a loud laugh "What cheeky brats, and you think these informants all work for the actual Spade?"

Haruta nodded enthusiastically "I'm positive Oyaji, according to the information I just received, three of the four people matching the appearances the informants described, have just appeared on a winter island near the start of the Grand Line as part of a crew sporting a bright orange spade in their Jolly Roger."

Namur looked thoughtfully at Haruta "That's incredibly strange though. If several of this crew acted as informants for the marines it means that in the very least those three had no bounties. And based on the fact that you haven't given us any other names am I correct in assuming none of the other members have identifiable bounties either."

Haruta nodded in confirmation "So in that case how the hell did a group of no names, from East Blue of all places, make it to the Grand line unhindered whilst managing to pull the stunts they've been getting away with?!" Several members of the assembled pirates paused to give thought to the very valid question.

"It's possible they're not actually a new group but rather an old one that specialises in stealth yoi. If that was the case, they might have just stayed under the radar until now."

Haruta shook his head at his oldest sibling "I considered that, but if that's the case why come out of hiding now? I've not been able to find any information on the crew so far other than the absence of their bounties. Now that they're actively flying a Jolly Roger they should be making a move soon though. Until then it's just a matter of waiting."

Marco couldn't help the snort at the thought of Haruta being patient about anything, looking around, he could see he wasn't the only one hiding his amusement. "Oh screw you jerks, I can totally be patient!"

The smallest commander pouted as his siblings burst into laughter, Whitebeard grinned down at his youngest son "These Spades seem interesting, keep me posted on them." Haruta let out a happy laugh "Sounds good Oyaji, though I think we'll be hearing news sooner rather than later." The Emperor raised an eyebrow "Oh, and why's that?"

Haruta smiled "The island they've just landed on is currently under pirate ruling, and not the nice kind. Chances are the crew in charge will attack the Spades to make a point. Their captain's only worth fourty million beri so it should be pretty obvious if the Spades are a rookie crew or not based on how they deal with it."

Whitebeard grinned and Marco couldn't help but roll his eyes. If the spades ever made it to the new world there was no doubt in the phoenix's mind that they'd be hit with a recruitment pitch, a slight smirk appeared on his face. He was looking forward to it.

 _Author's note_

 _Ok, so that's chapter 4 done, i hope you're enjoying it so far! Thank you for all the favourites follow and comments so far (I've really loved reading them) also to answer a question asked by Sweetsnakes yes the revolutionaries will be involved though they won't show up for a few chapters *evil grin*. Next chapter I promise more messing with the marines, but feel free to comment or pm me if you have any particularly evil ideas of revenge! :D other than that I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the next one will hopefully be out soon_


	5. Meetings

Ace probably shouldn't have found his crews suffering nearly as amusing as he did, but no one had ever accused him of being a good person. In his defence though, it's incredibly easy to be amused when everyone around you is suffering from the cold, and you yourself are completely unaffected.

"Stupid fire logia Captain, should get some fucking _seastone_ , see how he likes the snow then." Alice's muttering continued to grow steadily darker whilst various crew mates chipped in with their own threats, purposefully shooting dark glares at their captain.

Ace smiled obnoxiously in retaliation "Everyone feeling nice and warm?" Twelve identical glares landed on the logia, and even the normally even tempered Dusty shot the teen a scowl "Ace, you're my Captain, and I respect you. But if you don't shut the fuck up _right now_ I will personally start a mutiny, and then take the rest of the crew and sail somewhere warm. All in favour?"

Twelve voices raised in unison "Aye." Ace pouted but decided it was probably best to shut up now. After all, Doc had seastone lined handcuffs just in case he ever needed to operate on Ace whilst he was unconscious and control his flames.

It hadn't taken the spades long to reach the winter island Runag, and dealing with the yellow viper pirates had been almost pitifully easy for the former new world pirate and the crew he'd been training.

So after an almost embarrassingly short fight (where Ace hadn't even needed to make use of his devil fruit), the Spades had taken the time to spread some new rumours about the missing 'Lady Spade' (And boy would he kill to see Akainu's reaction when those finally reached the marines). And then the crew had once more continued on their journey to try and find Shank's.

Unfortunately, whilst a good portion of the journey could be done by ship, the last half day of the route was inaccessible by anything other than good old-fashioned hiking. And despite Ace melting a basic path up the mountain he could provide absolutely zero defence for his crew against the frozen winds and heavy snow.

The logia's excessive laughter at his crew's discomfort was probably the reason Ace was currently being threatened with mutiny, though in all fairness it may have had something to do with the excessive training sessions he'd forced his crew to endure...

Luckily before a mutiny could occur Ace spotted a flickering light in the distance "I see the cave! Looks like we're here." Within an instant the atmosphere grew tense. Despite Ace's reassurances that they'd be completely fine the Spade's couldn't help but worry, after all it wasn't every day you met an Emperor.

With a complete lack of caution (aka self-preservation instinct) Ace walked into the cave, his crew following nervously behind him. The conversation inside the cave died instantly as the crew already inside surveyed the newcomers with interest, and more than a little bit of blood lust.

As if oblivious to the tension he'd caused Ace grinned "I'm looking for Red Haired Shanks, is he here?" there was a moment of silence before the man in question laughed, a wickedly sharp smile on his face. "I am. But who are you, and what does a group of no names want from me?" As he spoke the Emperor's hand moved to rest lightly on his sword.

Ace's grin widened, completely unaffected by the implied threat "I'm not here for a fight if that's what you're wondering." ignoring the surprised looks of the Emperor's crew, the fire logia gave a short bow "The name's Portgas D Ace, I came to thank you for saving my little brother's life. Luffy talks about you all the time." Any lingering tension was dispelled with those words "Luffy's brother? I didn't know he had a brother."

The Spade Captain smiled "We exchanged vows of brotherhood a few months after he met you, so I'm not surprised. I heard you were in the area, so I wanted to stop by and say thanks." The older pirate Captain grinned "Well then settle in, let's party!"

It took approximately an hour for the majority of both crews to get completely smashed, much to the amusement of both Captains. Sitting aside from the chaos the older Captain asked the younger the question that had been on his mind ever since the teen first introduced himself.

"So Ace, if you're a pirate how come you've avoided getting a bounty till now?" Ace snorted "What makes you think I'm a pirate?" The One-armed Captain smiled knowingly "Only three types of people have the security to try and sail the grandline, Pirates, Nobles and Marines and I highly doubt you're a Marine."

The logia couldn't quite help the snort of laughter he let out, it went without saying that he was no noble, and Ace certainly _wasn't_ a Marine. "Yeah I'm a pirate, in truth we've been flying under the radar till now, though that should change come next week's paper."

Taking another sip of his Sake Ace grinned and pulled a familiar playing card out of his jacket and passed it over to the emperor "Though that's not to say you haven't heard of us." Taking the card in his hand Shanks paused in recognition of the bright orange spade proudly displayed in its centre.

Looking between the card in his hand and the happily smirking teen in front of him, Shank's burst into laughter. "Well we've certainly heard of you kiddo." realisation and amusement dawned on the man's face "Does that mean you're responsible for the rumours about Akainu's love life?" Ace nodded enjoying the laughter his response drew, and paused to give the older pirate a minute to calm down.

Staring at the smiling face of the man who had once saved his little brothers life, Ace decided to take a risk. Shanks had been a pirate longer than he'd been alive, meaning he had contacts Ace couldn't even dream of.

Contacts which could possibly have more information on Blackbeard. "Shanks I know this might be a strange request, but I was hoping I could see if you had some information I've been looking for."

The Red-haired man paused before giving the younger Captain a discerning look "You can ask, but it doesn't mean I'll give you any answers." Ace let out a sigh of relief, it was more than he'd expected "That's fine, I'm looking for any information you might have on a figure in the underworld currently going under the name of Blackbeard."

Shanks stopped and stared at the teen in front of him, something almost unbearably heavy in his gaze "And just how did you hear that name?" Ace hesitated, he could trust Shanks, but what he did now had the potential to change everything.

But as it stood, change had been Ace's goal from the start. And he'd always been a risk taker. "The whispered words of a dead man." It was technically the truth, Thatch's last words had been to accuse the traitor after all.

Ace leaned forward to hold eye contact with the Emperor to let the man know exactly how serious he was "The man used his last breaths to claim that Blackbeard has been hiding as one of Whitebeards Sons, some guy named Teach."

Shanks face turned deadly serious "That's a bold accusation to make, and a dangerous one at that." Ace nodded in agreement because Whitebeard was protective of his sons and Ace knew that better than anyone.

"I know, which is why I haven't been shouting it from the rooftop. But one of Whitebeard's men helped me out once, and if this information is true I'd like to repay the favour by warning them."

Shanks gave a sober nod before gesturing for his first mate to come over, Benn took one look at his Captain's face before sitting down "What do you need Captain?"

"Get me a copy of our Den Den Mushi number and when you get back, give Ace all the current information we have on Blackbeard, as well as any information we have on Marshall D Teach." The first mate's eyes widened slightly, and he left to find the number leaving Ace and Shanks alone once more.

The fire user bowed his head in gratitude "Thanks for your help." He couldn't accuse Teach without evidence but hopefully with Shank's help he'd be able to find some soon. Something that could help protect his family.

Shanks gave a small scoff "Don't worry about it Kiddo, we've not got much information on Blackbeard but the stuff we have is.. unpleasant to say the least. If he really is hiding as one of Newgate's children, particularly that specific child, we need to be aware of this sooner rather than later."

Almost subconsciously the Emperor lifted his hand to the scars on his face "I don't think I should have to tell you this but I'll say it anyway, don't approach Teach under any circumstances. He's out of your league right now and I'd hate to see you die so soon Kiddo."

Ace froze before nodding. He knew Teach was out of his league right now, badly out of his league. No matter how close the fight had been on Banrou island, the point remained that Ace had lost. And he couldn't afford to lose again.

So until his strength and haki got back up to New World levels, Ace wasn't even going to consider going after Teach. Interrupting his thoughts Benn walked over two folders and a slip of paper in his hand. Passing them over to Shanks the first mate gave a small nod to his Captain and wondered off once more.

The Red Emperor handed both over to Ace "Benn's gone to get your crews number, we'll call if we get any conclusive evidence on Teach and feel free to do the same to us," Shank's paused a grin growing on his face "I also wouldn't be adverse to hearing a call about whatever rumours I'm sure you'll be spreading in future."

Ace laughed, and the tense atmosphere dissolved "I will," The teen paused in thought an evil grin appearing on his face "please feel free to add to the rumours as you go, the Marines are still trying to determine who Lady Spade is."

The Emperor threw back his head and laughed "You know you're just like your mother." Ace froze, he'd never heard of Shank's association with Rogue in the original timeline "You knew my mum?" The older pirate gave a small nod, a nostalgic grin on his face "Rouge, right?" Seeing Ace's nod of confirmation, the older Captain grinned.

"Yeah, I knew Rouge, real spitfire she was. She always looked so gentle and sweet, and then as soon as the fighting started she turned into a demon straight out of hell. The Marine's hated her. She drove the Captain close to death with worry as well, idiot that he was."

Ace grinned before the meaning of Shank's words settled in his mind "The Captain?" The look Shank's sent Ace was far too knowing "Gol D Roger." Shank's laughed at the teens narrowed eyes.

"Yeah that's the same reaction a lot of folks have to the name. But the Captain was a good man, an idiot for sure but he cared about his men, and he was willing to become the Devil himself to protect them."

Shank's paused considering before giving a small shrug "Roger was never actually caught." Ace stared with wide eyes "I think the Marines would disagree with that." The emperor shook his head sadly "They would. The Captain was dying of an incurable disease, he turned himself in, hoping to draw attention away from what was important."

The Red haired man fixed him with a pointed stare, and for once Ace found himself struggling to insult his parentage. Noticing the conflict on the younger man's face Shanks gave a small smile.

"I'm sure you've heard a lot about Roger, most of it uncomplimentary, but you of all people should know how easily rumours spread, and trust me when I say the world government did everything it could to discredit Roger. But you've heard what I have to say, and if you ever get the chance I suggest you ask Rayleigh or Buggy. Hell, even old man Whitebeard's sure to have some stories."

Ace gave a small nod, unwilling to upset the man who had helped him so much, but also slightly curious. After telling Whitebeard of his parentage the Emperor had occasionally told Ace stories about the Rodger pirates, and Ace had listened (however unwillingly it might have been).

And whilst he still didn't accept the man as his father, he could acknowledge that Gol D Roger was not the heartless devil he had grown up hearing about. Seeing he'd gotten through to the younger Captain, Shanks gave another smile "I won't say anything else on the matter, but you should know that your parents loved you. Both of them."

Ace gave a shaky nod and Shanks grinned "Alright enough of the serious stuff for now. Let's drink, I want to hear some stories about Luffy!" Happy for the distraction Ace spent the next few hours regaling both crews with tales about his dumb little brother, gaining more than a few laughs.

Finishing up his last story, Ace rose to his feet "Thank you for your hospitality, we'll be heading back now." Shank's grinned "Keep in contact Kiddo, and we're looking forward to hearing the latest rumours when they come around!"

Ace grinned and gave a last wave, before turning back towards his crew "Let's get back to the Card Deck! We've got a long journey to the next island!"

Ignoring the complaints of hangovers, Ace whistled cheerfully and started melting a path back towards the ship. Now that Ace had more information on Blackbeard, he could afford to relax a little. Besides from what he remembered they would be sailing through a bounty hunters den soon, and Ace was looking forward to venting any remaining frustrations.

Somewhere a few days away, a whole nest of bounty hunters shivered.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp didn't think he'd ever laughed so hard in his life. For one day and one day only, the old Marine could even forgive his grandson's choice of becoming a pirate. Because this, this glorious piece of news made up for everything.

When the rumours about Akainu and Lady Spade's passionate love affair had first popped up, no one had dared mentioned it out of fear of the red dog. But after a second set of rumours had popped up at the exact same time Akainu had coincidentally been away on 'shore leave' people had jumped to conclusions.

And by God were those conclusions beautiful.

The main rumour going round, was that Akainu had used his time off to ride a wave of lava all the way to the start of the grandline, where he had gotten down on one knee with a diamond ring in hand and sung a passionate love song (consisting of the words "I lava you") And then asked lady Spade to marry him.

And whilst it was incredibly hilarious to even imagine Akainu discarding his sense of justice and proposing to a pirate Captain with a cheesy romantic song, the rumours only got worse from there.

In another story, Akainu had sacraficed Spades still beating heart to the volcano gods in an attempt to prove his devotion to the Marines and to gain more power. But instead the enraged Gods had cursed him to never love again. A few Marines had even teared up at that one.

But Garp's absolute favourite rumour by far was the one that claimed that Akainu was secretly an undercover pirate, who had only joined the Marines after a longstanding bet with Buggy the clown, who was also involved in a convoluted love triangle for Lady Spade's heart.

Garp absolutely loved his stupid grandson.

But then again Garp wasn't sure anything could compare in his mind, to the experience of watching Sengoku and Tsuru making purposefully vague and misleading statements about Akainu's personal life, to help fuel the fire.

Sometimes Garp couldn't help but feel proud of his grandkid.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys, so I way too much fun trying to come up with rumours about Akainu, but who can blame me? Thank you for all the favourites, follows and reviews its been really nice to read them! I'm afraid lectures are gonna start up again soon so updated are gonna slow down but I promise to try to get one or two updates out a week! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please leave a review! your reviews feed me! :D_


	6. Information

The revolutionary headquarters at Baltigo was usually a very quiet place to work. Due to the nature of their jobs and its emphasis on secrecy it was highly unusual for the volume to rise above that of a normal conversation level.

However, as an organisation that primarily dealt in information it also meant that the revolutionaries were almost always privy to any prominent rumours being spread round. Which is probably why instead of the usual silence, the rumours about Akainu had opened an extensive betting competition.

Koala stared in amusement as several members of the feared revolutionary army proudly declared the most ridiculous rumours they had found about Akainu, in an attempt to win the promised prize of extra dessert.

Ignoring the gossiping revolutionaries Koala made her way over to where her partner in (literal) crime was standing. Upon her approach Sabo looked up and gave her a quick smile "It's amazing how far some of these rumours have already spread."

Koala gave a small nod of agreement "Everyone loves a scandal so stuff like this always travels fast, what I'm struggling to figure out is how there's already so many new rumours. I know the Spade pirates laid the groundwork when they stopped by Runag Island, but I'm struggling to find out how new rumours are still being formed."

Sabo chuckled, "I may be able to answer that one. After defeating the pirates on Runag Island we think the Spades may have come into contact with Red Haired Shanks who was also in the area. Shanks seems to be helping spread some of the rumours going round, he also made some purposeful comments in a few bars about what an interesting woman Lady Spade is and how it was great to see her again after all this time."

Koala's eyes widened "Does Shanks have a motive in spreading the rumours or is he just doing it on a whim?" Sabo gave a small shrug "No motive that we can see, personally I think he's just taken a liking to the Spades, and wants to help spread the chaos."

The former sun pirate gave a small hum of acknowledgment "That's a fair enough assumption to make when it comes to the Red Emperor. Have we determined if 'Lady Spade' is definitely a fake or not?"

Sabo gave a small nod "We did, and we're pretty sure she's a fake. It was unexpectedly harder to prove than we'd initially thought though. From what we can tell the actual Spade pirates are being led by someone else entirely, and they've been using a false persona to stay under the radar."

"And that's worked till now?" Sabo let out a snort "That's the most interesting part, as far as we can tell, Spade's been destroying random records in every marine base they've hit so far, we just didn't realise it till now because of the more obvious information they've been releasing."

"But the destroyed information is supposedly being used to obscure Lady Spade's real identity which is why the Marines still believe they're dealing with a real person. Albeit one they now have no information on."

Sabo paused for a moment a small smile gracing his face "Though I'm not sure how long that will last. According to one of our spies several of the spades have managed to acquire bounties which should be released in tomorrow's paper, which will bump up the priority of researching Spade."

Koala let out another thoughtful hum before smiling "I'm surprised we've not asked them to join our information network yet." Sabo grinned "Dragon's considering it. He said he'll probably send one of us as a representative in a month's time to assess if they're suitable of joining or not."

Both revolutionaries smiled, "If nothing else I want to thank them for the entertainment." Sabo smirked in agreement but before they could say anything else a large shout rang throughout the island "Stop gambling and get back to work, you lazy slackers!" deciding not to test their boss's patience the two revolutionaries went back to work.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace could practically taste the tension in the air as the twelve Spades sat down in the plotting room, each one of them shooting glares at the others. "So," all attention snapped to Ace "If all went according to plan, today's the day our bounties should be released. As promised whoever has the highest bounty aside from myself gets a day off training."

The tension in the room rocketed and the Spades glaring intensified. A whole day off training was worth any act of sabotage.

Ignoring the apprehension on his crews faces Ace withdrew the first bounty from the pile "First of all with a very respectable starting bounty of twenty five million Beris we have Masked Deuce."

Deuce smirked as the surrounding Spades groaned, twenty five million was probably one of the highest starting bounties to come out of East blue in years.

It was actually far too high for a second mate who had only been in one visible fight, but Ace was relatively certain that their bounties may have been somewhat inflated due to their recent humiliations of the Marines.

Deciding it didn't matter the Captain moved on to the next bounty in the pile, only to break into helpless giggles "Next at thirty million beri," Deuce's smirk died "We have Alice."

"What?!" Alice burst into laughter before pointing a triumphant finger at Deuce "Take that you shitty sniper! In your _fucking_ face!" The entire table stared at their normally mild mannered shipwright in amazement.

Realising what she'd just said Alice lowered her hand back to her sides, her cheeks flushing. bright red "Um... what I meant to say was..."

The spades burst into laughter and Ace clapped her on the shoulder "Good job Alice." Deuce groaned knowing he'd already lost the competition for the free day. Alice smiled before crossing her fingers "Please let no one else have a higher bounty, please let no one else have a higher bounty, please let no one else have a higher bounty."

Grinning Ace reached for the next poster before letting out a low whistle "Sorry Alice no free day for you either, with a bounty of thirty seven million we have Cowboy Dusty."

"How? I thought the only one of the yellow vipers with a bounty that high was their Captain and Ace was the one to deal with him?" Ace nodded "True but the first mate Dusty dealt with was worth thirty million, add that to the fact that the marines have probably figured out we're the same spades who released all that information and well.."

Ace shrugged "all our bounties are probably gonna be above expected even if we've only been in one visible fight. On a brighter note we should get more bounty hunters coming after us soon!"

Doc stared at his Captain, comprehension dawning in his eyes "Don't tell me you want to use them for _training_?" Ace nodded seriously, "Of course! Bounty hunters will make awesome training targets!" The whole crew groaned "Why did I choose to follow this lunatic?!"

Ace smirked "Too late to back out now Paddy!" the teen's head drooped "That's what I was afraid of." Snickering at his crew's despair Ace withdrew the last two bounty posters from his pile "Ok next poster's mine, Ace of Spades worth fithty million."

Dusty gave a small chuckle "Good job Captain." Ace smirked, it was a small bounty for someone who had once been a new world pirate but it was definitely an accomplished first bounty "Thank you, and last, but certainly not least we have our illustrious leader Lady Spade weighing in at sixty five million beri."

There was a moment of silence before the entire Spade crew burst out into laughter "How have they not caught on already?!" Ace opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Deuce howling on the floor "Those poor dumb bastards." Ace rolled his eyes but couldn't help his own smirk.

"Shanks has been helping spread some of the rumours and because he's acknowledged her, it's increased her credibility tenfold. It also means the Marines believe Shanks met her before she 'faked her death' which is why he supposedly met up with her."

"So because of the increased threat level, the marines hope by raising Lady Spade's bounty, it'll increase her infamy so there will be more people on the lookout for her. The marines also couldn't leave her bounty as lower than mine seeing as she's our supposed Captain, whereas I'm apparently the first mate now."

Dusty sniffed in mock offence "How could you replace me like this Captain?!" Ace laughed "Oh can it. You're the lucky one, they don't think I'm the Captain of my own crew!"

Twelves heads turned to face him in unison "Yeah but that's your own fault Captain. I mean if you hadn't spread the rumours, or destroyed those records, the Marines would have realised Lady Spade was a fake by now." Ace grinned.

"Completely true. But can anyone here honestly say they've not had fun creating the rumours?" The room was silent and Ace nodded smugly "Thought as much, plus I kind of want to see how far we can take this. I already know you guys have a betting pool going on."

Deuce grinned shamelessly "Completely true Captain, but you're not allowed to see the bets in case you deliberately influence it for a laugh." Ace opened his mouth to deny it, but closed it upon realising it was probably something he would do.

"Meh, fair enough. Anyway as promised Dusty gets tomorrow off from training." The cowboy gave a cool smile, but the small fist bump he was trying to hide was telling enough of his relief. Giving a small snort Ace turned to the rest of the crew insane smile firmly in place.

"As for the rest of you, training resumes tomorrow, and seeing as Doc, Gray, Paddy, Small, Quartz, Green, Kalin, Dret and liam didn't get bounties this time round, you guys get extra training."

The aforementioned Spades despaired at their fates "I knew I should have tried to find a higher ranking officer. I just knew it." Ace clapped Paddy on the shoulder "Too late for regrets now!" Ignoring the groans of his crew Ace gave a resounding clap.

"Don't worry there'll be more fights soon and the same rewards apply, the highest bounty excluding Dusty or myself, gets the day off, the lowest gets extra training sessions unless you can provide a specific reason from Doc, as to why you can't train. This only applies for the next few months though, because after that bounties tend to stabilise unless you do something truly outrageous."

Ace paused letting the information sink in "Any objections?" despite their moaning not a single person in the crew objected.

Dret, the treasurer of the ship, stood up before deliberately clearing his throat and turning to the rest of the crew "I'll set up the betting pool over bounties tonight. Buy in's two thousand beri, feel free to participate in this one Captain!"

Smiling to himself as the tense atmosphere dissolved into petty squabbles over bets, Ace couldn't help but laugh. He wondered how his family back in East Blue would react to his new bounty, Luffy would be overjoyed of course, Makino would smile, Dadan would probably be proud, Garp would...

Ace paled "Shit." Last time round Ace's bounty had risen rapidly after getting into several high profile fights, but his starting bounty had certainly not been this high. Ace groaned, looks like he'd need more training if he wanted to avoid the shitty geezer.

Last time he'd seen him...

 _"I don't have any sympathy for criminals, but for family I do." Tears streaming down the old mans face. A molten fist. A blank look, Garp tackled to the floor by Sengoku to stop him killing Akainu._

 _"Thank you for loving me."_

Ace froze as the memories rushed over him. _Thatch. Teach. Akainu._

It was several seconds before Dusty's yelling at Deuce snapped Ace out of his thoughts.

Ace was currently a lot stronger than he had been in the original timeline, due to having a decent grip on Haki as well as a much better mastery of his devil fruit. The problem was, he still wasn't up to the level he had been at the end of his last life.

Ace simply didn't have the resources or skilled enough sparring partners to reach that level at present. And so if Ace was going to get stronger, he had two options.

Option one, he picked fights with crews his own wouldn't stand a chance against, and increased his bodies skill level from brutal do or die experience. The issue with this method is that though Ace would probably survive and prosper from such encounters, it was an almost certainty that most of his crew would die.

Which was not an option.

So that left option two, Ace needed an advantage he could train with his current skill set and resources. One he hadn't bothered to learn last time.

Conquerors haki.

Ace knew he could use it. Bluejam had proved that much. But due to its association with Rodger Ace had never bothered to fully unlock it, and that arrogance may have been one of the many small decisions that cost him his life.

So this time Ace would train it. There would be a lot of guesswork involved but Ace figured he could call up Shanks in a couple of days if he got stuck.

"He was willing to become the Devil himself to protect them."

The emperor's words echoed loudly in Ace's ears. Looks like there was something else he had in common with his biological father after all.

 _Author's note_

 _Hey guys sorry for the pause between updates I hope you enjoyed the chapter so far! I finally managed to add in the revolutionary army! next chapter should be up next week and I promise more madness as well as a quick check in with the Whitebeard pirates! Thank you so much for all the favourites follows and reviews!_


	7. Confusion

Ace gave a light flinch as twelve enraged glares turned pointedly towards him. It had been several days since the release of their bounties and the Spades had planned on stopping at a nearby island to celebrate. Unfortunately plans had a way of falling apart when a D got involved.

"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Alice took a step in front of the recently formed mob (formerly known as the Spade pirates) and smiled sweetly. "Don't know what you're talking about Captain. It's not like you accidentally became the Fire God of a cannibalistic native tribe, _who then tried to sacrifice us in your honour!"_

Ace took another nervous step away from his enraged crew mate "Well when you say it like _that_ , it sounds _really_ bad. But I rescued you all eventually! Shouldn't that count for something?"

Judging by the way his crew took a step closer to the logia, evil grins decorating their faces, it didn't count for much. "Come to think of it, we still haven't repaid you for the hellish training sessions yet, have we Captain?" Ace continued to back away "C'mon guys, let's just calm down a minute and,"

The knife flew past his face, and embedded itself in the mast before Ace even finished his sentence. Liam (a former circus man with incredible aim) smiled, another three knives clearly visible in his hands "It's payback time Captain!" Ace didn't bother to mention the fact that he was a logia and the knives would just go through him.

Something in his crew's expressions told him that they would _find_ a way. Why did he decide it was a good idea to teach them the basics of armament haki again?!

This was _not_ good. Sure Ace could outfight all of his crew easily, but it would be difficult to do so in a non-lethal manner. Which pretty much ruled out all use of his devil fruit. His best option was to escape until his crew calmed down.

Unfortunately, he'd also started training most of them in observation haki which would make escape far more difficult...

He really needed to start thinking these things through, didn't he?

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) Ace's escape attempt was foiled before it even began, as the young logia felt the telling pull of sleep.

With his last waking thought Ace cursed his narcolepsy.

This could not end well for him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace learned his assumptions were completely correct when he awoke ten minutes later, firmly strapped to an infirmary bed with seastone handcuffs. After a quick and futile attempt to escape his binds, Ace admitted temporary defeat and instead looked up at his crew's all too innocent smiles.

"Is this a mutiny? Because if so, I'd like to point out that I really doubt any of you could survive replacing me, as the leader of this madness." Dusty chuckled as Alice approached the infirmary bed, strange looking items in hand.

"Don't worry Captain, it's not mutiny. This is just some well-deserved payback."

Hearing the slightly demented laughter of the petite shipwright, Ace decided that once this (whatever this was) was over he'd lay off the training for a bit.

The harsh training paired with Ace's usual madness against the marines, seemed to have had the unintentional side effect of pushing his crew closer to insanity...

Oops.

As his crew drew closer, Ace couldn't help but regret his life choices.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks took one look at the newest bounty posters before bursting out into full bellied laughter, and grabbing the nearest Den Den Mushi. Ignoring his crews' curious looks, the Emperor wasted no time in ringing up the number of his favourite fire logia.

"This is Ace." The red-haired man grinned at the grumpy tone on the other end of the line "Hey kiddo, care to explain the newest bounty poster?" The answering groan was more than a little bit amusing. "I may have pushed my crew a _little_ too far. This was their revenge."

Shanks's laughter increased in volume "So as revenge they dressed you in incredibly convincing drag, painted a spade on your cheek, took a photo and sold it to the Marines claiming it was Lady Spade's new look after an encounter with a fruit user?"

The groan on the other end of the line was answer enough, "Aw it's not so bad kiddo. I wouldn't have recognised you at all if you didn't resemble your mother so much! If it makes you feel any better, you make a very pretty girl!" Shanks could hear the logias teeth grinding "Shanks. _Shut. Up_."

Shanks merely laughed at the threatening tone whilst the rest of the Red force, who had finally caught on as to what was going on, crowded round the poster and yelled unnecessary feedback at the Den DeDen Mushi.

"Gramps is never going to let me live this down." Shanks paused, Roger's parents were dead and Rouge had never mentioned any other family. Though it made sense that someone had, had to help Ace escape certain death "Gramps?" Ace froze momentarily "I thought you knew?"

"Knew what?" The teen giggled and Shanks was suddenly overcome with a large sense of foreboding "Do you know Luffy's last name?" Shanks found himself nodding before remembering Ace couldn't see him, and forced himself to reply vocally.

"Yeah it's Monkey, what's that got to do with it?" The giggling intensified "Well Luffy's gramps adopted me too. But anyway, think about someone else you know with the surname Monkey. Someone who likes to throw cannonballs at unsuspecting pirates."

The sentence clicked, and Shanks felt his jaw drop "Holy shit, you're joking right?" Ace's laughter confirmed that no, he was very much not joking "Oh God it all makes so much sense now! That's why the old geezer kept yelling about vengeance every time he saw me."

It also explained how Ace had survived all this time. No one would expect a Marine hero to adopt his former rivals kid. Not unless the person knew said Marine hero personally, and understood just how batshit _insane_ the old man could be.

Unaware of Shanks's revelations, Ace continued to laugh "I can't believe you didn't know! You converted the grandson of a Marine hero to piracy, and you didn't even know?!" The emperor let out a small huff "In hindsight that explains a hell of a lot though." The Den Den Mushi reflected the teen's grin "Doesn't it just?"

The conversation trailed off into easy silence, but after a few seconds, Ace gave a small sigh "I hate to bring it up, but I don't suppose you've managed to find anything concrete on Teach?" The Red haired man clenched his fists.

"No such luck kiddo, we've managed to match up the timings of Blackbeards deals with Teach's travel. So your info about them being one and the same is most likely correct. The issue is, it's nowhere near conclusive enough for us to bring it to old man Newgate."

The face on the other end of the Den Den Mushi scowled "That's what I was afraid of." The two Captains remained silent for a moment before Shanks grinned "Nothing that can be done about it for now Brat. We'll keep looking. You just enjoy spreading your chaos for now."

The Emperor was relieved to hear the teen laugh "I plan to! On the note of chaos though, I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to fully unlock conquerors Haki?" Shanks let out a low whistle, that was a surprise "So you have it? Should've expected that."

The snail echoed Ace's grin "I used it once as a kid but I only figured out what it was recently. Don't suppose you have any tips?" The bloodthirsty grin on Shanks's face would've sent any government agent running for the hills, but Ace merely mirrored it. "Sure thing Kiddo."

After giving the kid everything he could on training his Haki, Shanks finally hung up, a soft smile on his face. In another world, one where Roger had lived, Ace might have grown up like Shanks's little brother or nephew.

Unfortunately, that was not their world.

But the _least_ Shanks could do, was watch out for the Kid now. The world had no clue what was coming, and Shanks for one, would thoroughly enjoy the chaos.

Afterall, Ace was a D on both sides of the family.

And D would always bring a storm.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku closed his eyes and desperately tried to will away his latest headache.

Unfortunately, this was not an effective method when said headache, came in the form of a Marine hero invading your personal office to laugh at a pirate's bounty poster...seriously what the fuck was Garp even doing here?!

Attempting to block out the laughing nuisance, Sengoku stared down at the latest bounty poster of the infamous Lady Spade and frowned. While many of the Marine officers had been relieved to finally pair a face/photo to the name, the fleet commander was more annoyed than anything else.

Ok no, that was a lie, Sengoku was downright _pissed._

Because instead of following proper procedure and making sure the photographer who turned in the photo was someone who had a contract with the world government, some hotshot Marine base _idiot_ had accepted the photo at face value and proceeded to print it immediately.

And based off the spade's previous actions, as well as the fact they had been unable to track down the photographer since, there was an extremely high probability that the photo came from the Pirate crew themselves.

Meaning that Marines and bounty hunters all over the Grandline would be searching for the woman in the photograph, a woman who most likely _didn't exist_. Because despite all the rumours, and the photo, the fact remained that not a single Marine had actually met, or even seen, the woman in question.

Sengoku couldn't quite help but give a heavy sigh. Because while he couldn't prove the existence of Lady Spade, he also couldn't _disprove_ it (not with that menace, Shanks's glowing endorsement of the woman). And that was rapidly spiralling into a dangerous situation.

Because as long as the Spade pirates kept picking fights (which is pretty much _all_ they'd been doing since they announced themselves on the Grandline) and growing in infamy the Marines would be forced to raise the bounty on Lady Spade's head as the supposed Captain of the crew.

Meaning that if Lady Spade was revealed to be a fake the marines would be a laughing stock.

At current time the Spade's hadn't done enough damage, nor were they far enough through the Grandline, for the fleet Admiral to justify sending anyone to track them down specifically.

(Which was secretly somewhat relieving because Sengoku could admit to finding the rumors about Akainu hilarious)

So Sengoku was stuck. He couldn't not raise Lady Spade's bounty on the off chance the woman was real. But raising the bounty could do irreparable damage to the Marines image if she was in fact a fake.

So, for now Sengoku had no choice but to wait.

Wait and attempt to figure out why the woman in the poster looked so familiar.

And why the _hell_ Garp was laughing so God damn hard.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco couldn't quite help his grin. After all the stress that Haruta and Thatch put him through on a daily basis, Marco found it somewhat therapeutic to see Haruta so worked up.

Haruta could not agree less with the sentiment but couldn't currently retaliate, due to being moments away from tearing his hair out.

It didn't make any sense! The Spades didn't make any _fucking_ sense! After the first five bounty posters had been released, Haruta had wasted no time in using his not inconsiderable resources, to try and figure out all he could on the Spade crew. And the information he had found, was baffling to say the least.

"It doesn't make _any_ sense!"

Marco gave a small snort and turned to face the smallest Commander "Still obsessing over the Spade pirates yoi?" Haruta glared at his oldest sibling "Yes. Now shut up and help me figure this out!"

Giving a reluctant sigh, the phoenix settled down next to the other Commander "So what is it that doesn't make sense?" Haruta frowned and pulled out the newest bounty poster for Lady Spade, before gesturing to the pretty blonde woman in its centre.

(Marco couldn't help but feel that there was something achingly familiar about the woman. But pushed it to the back of his mind for now.)

"I can't find anything about the woman in the picture." Marco's stared at the twelth divisiom Commander in obvious interest, Haruta being unable to find any information after being given a picture was incredibly rare. "I doubt she's the actual Lady Spade."

"In fact I'm almost _positive_ the Spades deliberately leaked the picture to the marines themselves. But even if they just chose a random woman to play the part, we still should have been able to find some information on her. Instead there's nothing. It's as if she's a ghost."

"But the real issue is the rest of the crew." A slightly uneasy look appeared on the younger Commander's face "According to my sources, some of the Spade's fighting techniques looked an awful lot like the basics of Haki."

Marco stared at Haruta, eyes widened slightly in shock "You're certain yoi?" The twelth division Commander nodded, a serious expression on his face "As certain as I can be without seeing them fight in person." Marco let out a light grimance.

Haki was not a well-known skill anywhere outside of the second half of the grandline. And while one of the spades accidentally unlocking the basics of haki could be overlooked as a (highly unusual) coincidence, all of the Spades accidentally unlocking it, was about as likely as Whitebeard giving up alcohol.

Meaning that at least one of the Spades either was, or had contact with, someone from the new world who had deliberately taught them Haki. A hypothesis that was not only highly unlikely, but one that should have left at least some evidence behind.

And seeing as the Spade's had demonstrated their knowledge of Haki before their hypothesised meeting with Shanks, the Emporer wasn't the one to teach them.

Haruta was right. The Spade's didn't make _any_ fucking sense. "You're right, something doesn't add up here yoi. Go ask Izou if any of our allies are in the same area and see if they can find any more information on the Spades."

Haruta gave a quick nod "Will do. Should I tell them to engage if they get the chance?" Marco paused consideringly for a moment. On one hand letting their allies fight the Spades, would go far in assessing their skill level, as well as possibly helping to reveal any allegiances the Spades might have.

On the other hand, it wouldn't do for the Whitebeard's to start randomly attacking a rookie crew unprovoked. Because even if they had unlocked the basics of Haki, the Spade's were still a rookies. Meaning it was highly unlikely they'd be able to defeat a hardened pirate crew like one of the Whitebeard allied crews.

And the Spades were far too interesting to let them fall so soon. "Just observe for now." Haruta nodded, and Marco couldn't quite help his smirk.

If Haruta was right and the Spade's had unlocked Haki, it meant things had just gotten much more interesting.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys! So I tried to make this chapter a bit longer than usual to make up for last times shorter one! Thank you so much for all the comments I really love reading through them :) Next chapter brings the Whitebeard's allies! Hope you liked the chapter and please leave a review!_


	8. Theories

Ace forced his muscles to relax, as he heard the deafening click of the seastone cuffs being fastened behind his back. Desperately trying to ignore how weak he now felt, the logia carefully shifted his hands and pulled out the small lockpick that was hidden in the seam of his logpose. Several minutes of fidgeting later and Ace was finally free of his bonds.

Letting out a large grin as he felt his fire return, the young Captain turned towards his gathered crewmates, "What was the time Liam?" The former circus man stared down at his wrist, before shooting the freckled teen a large thumbs up "Two minutes thirty seven seconds Captain." Ace grinned, as several members of the crew groaned and handed money over to Dret.

It had been a couple of weeks since Ace's crew had sent his photo to the Marines, pretending it was Lady Spade, and since then Ace had promised the crew training free weekends. Weekends he was now taking shameless advantage of, by forcing his crewmate to teach him how to pick a lock.

The first time Ace had tried to recreate the position he had once sat atop the execution platform, it had taken everything the teen had not to have a panic attack. Overcome by the sudden flashbacks an execution platform, _looking down on everyone he loved fighting and dying for him._

Luckily Dusty had been there to snap him out of it, though the older man had been thoroughly confused by Ace's panic and had asked if he wanted to stop. But the fire logia had always been stubborn, and after steady exposure, and a few a few successful attempts at escaping his bonds, Ace could now calmly pick escape his cuffs.

Which is why his crew now had fun betting on his escape attempts.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ace handed the seastone handcuffs back over to Doc and lifted his newly freed hand to his mouth, to let out a piercing whistle. "Ok, I Know I said no training today but Kalin found some information about the next island that everyone needs to know."

Waiting until all of the crew was present, Ace gestured to the small unassuming man by his side. Kalin was one of the more forgettable looking members of the Spade pirates, and as such was perfect for information gathering.

Which is why whenever they stopped by a populated island, Ace would send Small to a bar to draw as much attention as possible, and spread new rumors. All the while, Kalin would sit quietly, unnoticed in a corner, and listen in on everyone elses conversations.

It was a technique that had worked well up till now, though with the Spades growing fame there was a chance the technique would lose it's effectiveness. But for now it was useful.

Kalin cleared his throat to draw attention "From what I've heard, the next island is under the protection of the Emperor Whitebeard and is currently inhabited by one of their allied crews." Ace couldn't quite help his grin. Last time round the Island, while still under Whitebeard's protection, hadn't been inhabited by any of their allies.

Meaning whichever crew was here, was here on Whitebeards orders. Most likely in order to gather information on the Spades. Ace felt his grin (and nerves) grow.

The important thing now, was to make a decent impression, but I mean at least Ace wasn't actively trying to murder anyone this time round, or at least he wasn't trying to murder anyone who didn't deserve it. So really, what's the worst that could happen?

"Any idea which of their allied crews, might be on the island?" Kalin shook his head, "no such luck Captain." Ace gave a small shrug "Oh well, guess we'll just have to wait and see. But seeing as the situation is somewhat different to our usual stops I'm applying some ground rules for the next island."

Ace met the eyes of his assembled crew letting them know he was serious "First of all this is just a supply stop, so there should be no need for fighting. Essentially try not to pick a fight with the Whitebeards, cause you mess with one of them, and you've just picked a fight with all of them."

His crew gulped, and Ace couldn't help but grin "Other than that be polite to the locals and go enjoy the day! Green, any idea how long it'll take the logpose to settle?" The navigator gave a small smile and a nod "I'd give it twenty hours Captain."

The logia gave a thoughtful nod "Ok, we'll dock overnight and leave whenever the pose settles. Alice and Grey, you two are on watch duty tonight but feel free to enjoy the day. Everyone else you can go bar hopping tonight if you want, just make sure that if you pick someone up you go to their place, no strangers on the ship."

"Other than that, make sure everyone gets back to the ship by one in the afternoon tomorrow." There were a few good natured cheers and groans.

"You gonna be joining us Ace?" The Captain grinned at his first mate "Not this time Dusty. I have something I want to do here." The mischievous grin on Ace's face was enough to send shivers down the cowboy's back.

"Ace, _please_ don't start a war with the strongest crew in the world." Ace scoffed an offended look on his face "Like I'd be that stupid!" (that was a lie, he'd _totally_ be that stupid) From the disbelieving look his first mate shot him, the logia could tell Dusty believed that statement as much as Ace himself did.

Holding up both his hands in a conciliatory manner Ace tried (and failed) to look innocent "I won't start anything _too_ bad." Dusty sighed in resignation "That's the best I'm going to get out of you, isn't it?"

Apparently, Ace's grin was answer enough, because the cowboy threw his hands up in exasperation before stalking off to go join the rest of the crew.

Laughing at his friend's reaction, Ace couldn't quite help but smile softly, and wonder which of his future (past?) brothers or sisters might be waiting on the Island.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Oars Jr, was intrigued. It wasn't too often that his crew got sent to gather intel, they were too conspicuous to really be of any use in terms of subtlety. But they were currently the only Whitebeard crew in paradise, which is why they had been tasked with observing the Spade pirates.

So far the infamous pirates had proved to be something of an enigma. After docking on the summer island, the crew had proceeded to buy supplies without causing any real trouble before going out to enjoy the island's nightlife.

What was more interesting was the fact that neither the Captain (It was easier to refer to Lady Spade as such, rather than as 'the woman who possibly doesn't exist') nor the first mate, the so-called Ace of Spades, had been sighted yet.

Which is why instead of getting drunk like he'd wanted to, Oars Jr was currently sat on a cliff overlooking the Harbour, watching the Spade's ship. The giant had been sat watching the Card Deck for approximately an hour when he heard measured footsteps approaching him from behind.

"What're you doing up here?" Based on the young voice, absence of fear and lack of stumbling on the rocky path it was probably one of the village teens. Keeping his eyes fixed on the Spades ship Oars replied, seeing no problem with indulging the young man's curiosity.

"I'm watching the Spade's ship. Commander Marco wanted some information on them." Oars Jr heard the young man come closer "How come? What's so interesting about the Spades?"

Oars grinned, noticing one of the Spade's returning to the ship "It's nothing bad, but they have some advanced techniques and the commander was curious as to where they might have learned it."

"Oh. You mean Haki right?" The giant turned in shock only to come face to face with the very man he was meant to be spying on. Raising a hand in greeting, the so called Ace of Spades grinned "Yo!" Instead of waiting for a response from the bewildered pirate, the teen settled down next to him.

Pulling a large bottle of sake out of his bag the Spade pirate offered it to the perplexed giant "What?" The teen chuckled "Well it must be boring sitting out here all alone and watching my ship. Want a drink?" Oars jr nodded a slight smile finding it's way onto his face.

"Your ship? I am I to take this as confirmation that you're the Spade's true Captain then?" humor sparkled in the younger man's eyes "Hm, who knows. Though I must say, I'm very flattered to have made it onto the Whitebeard's watchlist."

The green skinned man let out full bellied laughter "Well you've certainly got balls kid." The younger Captain tipped his hat "Thank you for saying so." Snorting the giant looked at the infamous Spade pirate and realised just how young he looked.

Far too young to have done half the crazy shit he'd been accused of.

Not that age had ever stopped people from doing crazy shit. Giving a quiet chuckle, the giant decided to cut to the chase "Look, I'm incredibly bad at all this subtlety shit, I'm only here because there was literally no one else. So how about I ask you my questions and you can answer what you like."

Ace's expression turned from amused to completely disbelieving and then straight back to amused again. Tipping his head back the teen burst into laughter "That is honestly the most straightforward attempt at getting information I've ever heard. Sure why not?"

The giant grinned "What's your full name?" The teen raised an eyebrow as if amused by the question "Trying to figure out more information so Commander Haruta can track me down?" Oars blanched, and Ace let out a cheerful smile.

"You don't need to act so surprised, the commander's information network is somewhat legendary." The green man couldn't bring himself to disagree, despite the fact the statement was usually only true in the new world.

Ignoring the giants conflict the teen gave an easy smile "Portgas D Ace. It's a pleasure to meet you." The Older man felt his eyes widen unwillingly, a D huh? That explained a lot. "Oars Jr, nice to meet you to."

After a moment of peaceful silence Oars asked his next question "So who taught you Haki?" The teen's returning grin was positively animalistic "That one's a secret I'm afraid. But I will say that we're currently unaffiliated with any major crews if that's why you were asking."

The teen frowned momentarily and held up a hand "Actually wait, no, scratch that, we kind of are. But it's in an unofficial capacity, and it's pretty much a friendly and equal exchange of information gathering."

Oars gave a slow nod, this was far more information than he'd actually expected to obtain. "How old are you anyway? The freckles make it hard to tell." Ace laughed "Seventeen." Oars gave a low whistle, causing the teen to laugh harder "Anymore questions then?"

The giant paused for a moment considering, while he was pretty sure the teen had been answering his questions honestly, he was incredibly uncertain as to why. It wasn't out of fear for the Whitebeards, that much was for sure, but there was no clear benefit for the youth. "Why are you answering my questions?"

The older pirate had expected a carefree statement about finding his honesty refreshing, or because the young Captain had felt like it. Instead he received a sad smile, and eyes that looked far too old for such a young man's face.

"A whitebeard helped me out once. If I can, I want to repay the favour." Oars stared at the honesty in the young man's eyes and gave a nod. Ace smiled "You get one more question."

Oars paused, there were many different questions he could ask, but there was really only one that needed answering "Why did you set sail?"

"Originally it was because I wanted an answer to a question I had asked for years. Now I sail because I want get strong enough to protect everyone I care about. And after that I want to live a life with no regrets." Standing up the teen stretched his back out, a nostalgic smile on his face "But I think that's enough questions for now."

The teen held out his hand "Now that you've gotten some information off me, want to join me in getting horrendously drunk?" The giant laughed and accepted the teen's hand, more than a little surprised when the younger man had enough strength to pull him to his feet.

"I'd love to."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Whitebeard smiled as the last of his son's settled down into the conference room. The weekly commanders meeting was usually a dull, but necessary affair. Where the division commanders reported the weekly expenses as well as reporting on the states of their various territories.

This time, the meeting was slightly different than usual. Whitebeard cast a fond smile at the Den Den Mushi currently sat in the middle of the table. According to Haruta's network the Spades should have arrived on Kilan Island yesterday and the commanders were eagerly awaiting the report of their long-time allies.

Or more specifically, Haruta and Thatch were practically vibrating in their seats, whilst the rest of the commanders looked on in mild interest, and slight apprehension. Giving a loud cough, Whitebeard drew the attention of his crew "Ok, let's call up Oars."

Ringing their allies' number, Whitebeard heard more than a few snickers as the snail assumed a very much hungover face. "Oyaji why are you calling this early?!" The snickers turned to full blown laughter "It's already two pm son." The giant groaned, prompting yet more laughter amongst the commanders.

Taking slight pity on his friend, the Phoenix interrupted the laughter "I thought you were watching the Card Deck, how come you're so hung over yoi?" The snail lost its miserable expression and smiled brightly "I was! But I ended up getting the information we needed pretty early on." Whitebeard let out a rumbling chuckle "So what did you find out son?"

Oars grinned "The actual Captain of the Spade pirates, is Portgas D Ace, also known as the Ace of Spades. He's seventeen and though he refused to tell me where he learnt Haki, he admitted to having some sort of loose affiliation with a new world pirate crew. But said it was a mutual relationship of friendship rather than a subordinate one."

Most of the commander's stared at the Den Den Mushi in shock. While they had asked Oars to report back any information he stumbled upon, they hadn't expected nearly this much. Haruta paused as he processed exactly what Oars had just said "Wait, Ace told you?!"

The snail echoed Oars's slight smile "Yup. I was sat on a cliff observing their ship when the brat pops up, cool as a cucumber, hands me a drink and asks why the Whitebeards were interested in his crew."

The commanders sniggered, whilst their father merely burst into laughter "Cheeky brat. What did you reply Son?" The Den Den Mushi gave a somewhat sheepish look "You know I can't lie for shit Pops. I told him the truth and asked if he'd be willing to answer some questions."

"How did he react?" Asked the Phoenix, genuinely curious to the answer, Oars chuckled "Well obviously he agreed to answer, seemed more amused by it than anything else. The interesting thing was that after the first question, he asked if I was trying to feed Commander Haruta's network."

There was a pause before the smallest Commander spoke "Did he mention me by name?" Something serious flashed across the Den Den Mushi's face "He did. Said I shouldn't be surprised he knew about your network, because it was something of a legend."

Whitebeard paused thoughtfully "He seems very well informed, it's more than likely that the Spade's knowledge of Haki came from Ace himself or from their contact in the new world."

"That's what I thought too Oyaji. But there's one more thing..." Whitebeard gave a small hum to gesture his Son to go on "I asked why he was answering my questions in the first place, and he said a Whitebeard saved him in past and he was just returning the favour."

"Did he mention who it was?" More than one commander was now staring at the Den Den Mushi in interest. The Whitebeard crew was a large one and lots of people had retired over the years, so theoretically it was possible that one of their own had started teaching Ace Haki. "He didn't." Whitebeard paused "If you have the chance I want you to look into it Haruta."

The smallest commander nodded, and the elderly Captain turned his attention back to the Den Den Mushi "And what do you think of Ace as a person?" The commanders stared at the snail intently, whilst Oars wasn't great at anything involving stealth, he usually had very good instincts when it came to people.

The smile on the Den Den Mushi turned softer "He seems like a good guy, and his crew clearly cares about him. Even if they do constantly complain about his supposed 'devil training'." The Whitebeard's burst into laughter, more than a few of them shooting pointed glances at Marco.

Oars's smile turned sad, "He's also definitely lost someone in past. When I asked his goal for sailing the sea, he said he wanted to get strong enough to protect those he cared about, and then live a life with no regrets."

The commanders went silent in acknowledgement, none of them was a stranger to loss.

Finally Whitebeard broke the silence "Do you think he'd make a good ally Son?" The horned giant's sad smile turned into a full-on grin "Definitely. The kid's batshit crazy, he'd fit right in!" More than a few of the commanders chuckled at that.

"Also I'd recommend keeping an eye on the papers for the next few days. I dunno what the kid's got planned, but his maniacal giggling tells me it's gonna be something big." Whitebeard let out a rumbling laugh "Thank you for the intel Son."

There was a light chuckle on the other end of the line "No problem Oyaji, I'm gonna go now. We've got some serious clean up to do here, one thing I can say for the Spades is that they definitely know how to enjoy a good party."

Hanging up, Whitebeard looked around at his children "Anyone have any objections to going to meet the Spades when they finally pop up in the new world?" None of the commanders voiced an objection, though it escaped no one's notice that their father had said when the Spades made it to the New World. Not if.

Either way, the Whitebeard pirates were very interested in meeting the young Captain who had captured their father's attention.

 _Author's note_

 _So I managed to finish the chapter a little ahead of time, thank you so much for all the follows and reviews I can't believe there's over 150 followers! To answer some reviews, first to **ParrllelPenSW** thank you for the lovely review, no Whitey in this chapter but I can promise Squardo will show up soon *evil laughter* Also special mention to **SakuraKoi** who suggested Shanks in drag, because that honestly made me burst into laughter when I heard it! Another special mention to **AzureWarrior** because the idea of Lady Spade turning down Rodger because "wasn't man enough" has honestly been one of my favourite comments so far! Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and I should be back in a week, next time **Sabo**! :)_


	9. Memories

Sabo put his fist in his mouth, desperately trying to stifle his giggles. He was supposed to be undercover god damn it. If he got discovered because he was laughing too hard, Koala would _never_ let him live it down.

But it was so _difficult._

Averting his gaze away from the currently cross dressing 'Ace of Spades' the revolutionary gave a valid attempt at retaining a straight face.

Only to fail miserably, as he watched the supposed 'Lady Spade' reduce a Marine base to rubble, all whilst making loud and purposeful comments about, how it was such a shame her 'precious _little brother_ Ace' was too busy to help her. Props to whoever had done the teen's makeup though.

Because between the subtle differences in bone structure, disguised freckles, long blond wig, and difference in height (due to high heels and damn was it impressive the man could walk, let alone _fight,_ in them) the teen looked like a different person altogether.

Albeit one with enough similarities that Ace could still claim familial relations to.

 _"Sabo."_ The smile died from the revolutionaries face, as he heard a young voice calling his name. It was all in his head of course, but it had been happening much more frequently these last few months.

He still couldn't remember anything significant.

Merely whispers and shadows, but they felt _important_. The two small silhouettes which frequently appeared in his dreams felt so incredibly _important._ And Sabo couldn't quite help but both fear and anticipate what they might mean to him.

Snapping himself out of his thought the amnesiac stared as the Spades returned to their ship, ready to set sail. He had been trailing the crew for the last two days, to evaluate whether or not they'd be suitable to join the revolutionary armies information network.

It hadn't taken him long to decide that they would definitely be worth asking, now all Sabo had to do, was wait till they'd set off to approach them. Hopefully everything would go smoothly.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace tried not to flinch as he felt the presence which had been watching him for the last two days, grow nearer. The Spades had set sail from the last island an hour ago. And the fact the oddly familiar presence had appeared once more, proved that whoever the person following them was, they were after the Spades specifically.

The real question was whether the person was a friend or foe. There were more than a few people who might hope to gain something by approaching the Spades.

Purposefully keeping his back to the stranger, Ace waited until the presence was close enough to be within hearing distance and spoke, "I don't suppose you'd be up for telling me, why you've been watching me and my crew these last few days?"

The pirate heard a low thump, followed by a chuckle as the man who had been following them jumped onto the deck behind him. "I wondered if you'd notice." Turning around to confront the man, Ace felt himself freeze at the sight of a familiar top hat.

"Sabo?"

The name was out before Ace could stop it, and the pirate watched as the cocky smirk fell off teen in blue's ( _Sabo's_ , whispered Ace's mind) face. The blonde lifted a hand to his head, body swaying as if disoriented "Ace?" there was recognition in the way Sabo said his name, as well as confusion and unfamiliarity.

Before Ace could ask any questions, or punch the bastard for letting him think he was dead, Sabo collapsed. Rushing forward to catch his brother Ace placed a gentle, yet frantic hand to his neck desperately searching for a pulse.

Upon feeling a steady beat Ace relaxed slightly before letting out a large shout "DOC!" The older man stumbled onto the deck, along with half of the crew.

Seeing the stranger on deck, the old Doctor shot his Captain a concerned look "An intruder Captain?" Soundlessly, Ace shook his head, his hand automatically reaching for the crossed out S on his arm "My brother I think."

The crew stared at him in complete and utter shock, until finally Dusty was the one to speak "You _think_?" Ace was distantly aware of Doc coming closer to check his brother's condition, but his whole attention was still focused on Sabo.

"We thought he was dead. He was blown up by a celestial dragon when we were kids, I don't know how he could have survived." Doc gave a small cough to draw attention to him "I think I can answer that Captain, the kid's got deep burn scars, but none of them seem to have hit anything vital. Someone must have got to him in time to help treat him."

"But why would he stay away for five years?! Even if he was avoiding the celestial dragons he could have at least sent us a message?!" The crew fell silent, unsure of how to answer their Captain's unfamiliar desperation.

Suddenly Kalin noticed the top hat on the floor and let out a short gasp "Shit, I think I know why Boss." All attention snapped to the man "There have been rumours going around for a while now, about an amnesiac revolutionary with a top hat."

"Then why approach us now? If the kid's just fainted from seeing the Captain, then clearly he didn't remember anything up until now?" Kalin paused trying to think through the possibilities "If he is the same guy from the rumours, then it's likely he's here for the revolutionary army. I've heard of them reaching out to pirates before, for information purposes."

Ace gave an unsure nod before turning to Doc "If it was amnesia, any idea when he might wake up Doc?" The doctor shook his head "I can't tell for sure. He seems to be in good health though, so its likely his body has shut down to try and recover the memories he lost. For now we should probably just move him to the infirmary and let him sleep."

Ace nodded and picked up his brother and left to the infirmary without another word, the deck fell silent before Dusty let out a loud groan "You guys do realise that we now have an unconscious member of the revolutionary army on our ship right?" Paddy looked at the first mate, confused as to where this was leading "Yeah, so what?"

"So what do you think the revolutionary army is gonna do when one of their own doesn't report in, after going to see us." The pirates froze "Well shit."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Koala was worried.

It wasn't often that Sabo operated alone, and the fact that he was more than a few hours late checking in made her nervous. Sabo could be reckless, and occasionally irresponsible, but he was usually incredibly diligent about making sure he checked in on time.

The fact that they'd heard nothing from him, after saying he'd gone to meet the Spades ten hours ago was worrying. Koala could tell Dragon thought so to, because despite the man's usual stoic facade he had already snapped five pens whilst waiting for Sabo's report.

Finally after another tense five minutes of silence, the most wanted man in the world spoke up "Call him." Koala immediately grabbed out her Den Den Mushi to call up her lost partner.

Technically it was against revolutionary policy to up call any agents currently working a mission, in order to avoid blowing their cover. But seeing as Sabo wasn't currently undercover, it was more important to try and figure out if he was ok.

The tension in the room grew with each unanswered ring of the snail, until finally someone picked up "Hello?" Koala froze, it wasn't Sabo's voice "Who are you and what have you done to the owner of that snail?"

The Den Den Mushi's eyes widened "I'm assuming this is the revolutionary army then?" Koala glared at the snail refusing to confirm his suspicions "I'll take that as a yes then. Don't worry, your friend is fine, let me grab the Captain so he can explain the situation."

The revolutionaries sat in silence as they listened to the faint echoes of footsteps before a new voice spoke up "This is Ace." Koala tried not to snarl "What the hell have you done to my partner?" Oops, so much for not snarling then. Contrary to expectations the snail grinned happily in return.

"Nice to meet you too. And before I say anything else, Sabo is fine he's just unconscious in our infirmary at the minute." There was a pause as the pressure in the room increased as Dragon spoke "And just why _exactly_ is one of my men unconscious in your infirmary, and how do you know his name?"

If possible the pirate's grin widened "He's my brother, thank you for taking care of him." The only indication of Dragon's surprise was the slight widening of his eyes, Koala's reaction was much more visible "WHAT?!" The pirate seemed to wince slightly at the volume.

"I was surprised as well, we thought Sabo was dead after those bastard Celestial dragons shot him. I heard he had amnesia?" Koala stared at the snail intently before deciding to answer the unasked question "He did."

Relief seemed to flit across the snails face, as if the pirate was glad his brother hadn't willingly abandoned him with no contact "Anyway after he saw my face he collapsed, Doc said it was his bodies way of dealing with his lost memories, and that he'd wake up whenever he was ready to."

Koala let out a small sigh of relief, but saw her Boss was still tense, "And do you have any evidence the support this, other than knowing Sabo's name?"

The face on the other end of the line turned serious "If you really did rescue my brother from the burning wreckage of his ship on Goa island, then he should have been missing a tooth on the left upper side of his mouth. You should also know that Sabo is technically a noble."

Dragon paused before giving Koala a slow nod "I'll believe you for now." The solemn face turned to a devilish smile "Good. Because my _little brother_ , Luffy, would be _very_ upset with you if I died." Koala stared in awe and confusion, as her boss stiffened, before shifting somewhat uncomfortably at the sentence.

Ace gave another grin "I'll tell Sabo to ring you as soon as he wakes up. But before that, what did he originally come here for?" Koala let out a small giggle "I forgot about that, we were going to ask if you wanted to join the revolutionary armies information network?"

"What exactly does that entail?" Dragon waved a lazy hand in his subordinates direction, gesturing for her to explain "Simply put we ask any pirates in the network to pass on any information about corruption or slavery they might encounter."

"Pirates seem to run into that sort of stuff more often than anyone else. And while some of the more decent pirate crews might want to help, most don't have strength enough to survive the fallout of acting directly against the world government. But the revolutionary army is protected by our anonymity so we can act on the information provided."

"In exchange, we can give the pirates in our network, Intel on marines and other pirate crews in the area. So it's usually a beneficial arrangement for both parties." The pirate gave a small pause before replying, voice as cold as ice "I'll join, but for payment I want any information you might have on the pirate Blackbeard."

The revolutionaries shared a glance before Dragon spoke "That is acceptable, but I'd like to hear your reasoning for such a request." The pirate Captain let out a savage grin.

"I can't say too much, but the bastard has apparently been hiding as a Whitebeard pirate called Teach. A Whitebeard helped me out once so I'm also hoping to return the favour, before it's too late."

Koala tried not to curse, Blackbeard was hiding as one of _Whitebeard's_ kids?! No wonder they'd never caught the fucker. It also added a whole new layer of mockery to the name, the real question was, how the hell had a pirate from East Blue found that out?!

"Before you ask, the man who told me that is now dead. But Shank's has been able to match up Teach's travel With Blackbeard's appearances. We just don't have enough evidence to explain it to Whitebeard."

Dragon nodded, a grave look on his face "We'll pass on any information we get, when Sabo wakes up tell him to give you details of the information network." Then without another word, the most wanted man in the world hung up.

The original revolutionary then turned to face his subordinate "Find whatever information we have on Blackbeard, then go join the Spade pirates until Sabo wakes up." Giving a sharp nod, the Sun pirate walked off, head still reeling with new information.

One thing was for sure, things had just gotten much more complicated, the real question was, would it work in their favour?

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp took one look at the latest damage reports caused by the so called Lady Spade and destroyed his desk. "That _damn_ Brat."

The old Marine could admit to having found his grandson's recent antics entertaining. The idea of Ace cross dressing and pretending to be his own nonexistent older sister, was not only _hilarious_ , but would hopefully provide another false trail in the never ending search for Gol D Rodger's child.

However now the damn brat had gone and destroyed a boatload of Marine bases and gotten his bounty increased _again._ Or rather got _both_ his bounties increased again. Absentmindedly Garp wondered if Luffy had figured out his brother was pretending to be two people yet?

Somehow he doubted it, Makino had probably figured it out by now. Dadan _definitely_ had. The old hag had called to laugh at him already. Still if the bandit's laughter was bad now, it was going to be a million times _worse_ by next month, if the _other_ document on his desk had anything to say about it.

Garp groaned at the thought of it. When he next saw Ace, that boy was getting a few dozen a fists of love!

Unfortunately the old Marine still couldn't risk drawing attention to his grandson just yet. Letting out a large grin Garp decided to get rid of his frustrations in the time honoured tradition of going to 'train' the new recruits.

Whistling cheerfully to himself Garp proceeded to start, what would later be referred to as, the Garpocolyspse.

Sengoku merely sighed and wondered why the strong ones were always batshit insane.

 _Author's note_ _and **important questions!**_

 _Ok so first of all I have some questions for all the readers so feel free to leave your response in the comments!_

 _ **So first of all, do you guys want a pairing? **I've been sitting on this one for a while now and at the minute it could go either way, though just to warn you, if I do include a pairing it will **not** be a major focus of the story!_

 _ **Next question, which Whitebeard commander do you want the spades to meet first? **Ok, man, I have a scenario planned out for pretty much every commander so if people have a preference I'd love to know! _

_Other than that thanks to everyone who left a review they are so incredibly motivating to read! And to aswer some specific questions_ , _first of all to_ **_ParrllelPenSW_** _(firstly thank you for the lovely review) I'm_ _afraid I never had a chance to read the novels so the Spade's journey is pretty much 100% made up at this point!_ _And you're right Whitebeard is_ very _interested in Ace XD as_ _for the Warlord title you'll just have to wait and see, but I can promise a little bit on **Squardo**_ _next chapter *evil laughter*. To_ ** _AzureWarrior_** _I actually really love the idea of Ace finding a Spade look alike imagine all the chaos they could cause, thank you for the idea!_ _And finally to_ _**LittleOneTale** someone is _definitely _going to suggest a drinking competition when the Spades and Whitebeards finally meet! XD_ _hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I'll try and finish the next one soon!_


	10. Reunions

Sabo woke up in an unfamiliar room, head still pounding with new revelations. He had a _family_. Not the shitty parents he'd run away from, but two sworn brothers. Two brother's he'd _forgotten_ about.

Sabo wanted to _scream_ , how could he have _forgotten_ the two most important people in his life?!

But what was done was done and Sabo wasn't going to waste his time regretting it. Not when it had lead him to the revolutionary army, not when he still had the time to make it up to his brothers.

Speaking of brothers... Sabo stared down at Ace, who was currently sleeping peacefully by his bedside, and smiled. Watching his brother sleep, a quiet sort of contentment filled the revolutionary, as well as an irrational feeling of nerves.

What if Ace hated him for leaving? Logically Sabo knew the pirate probably wouldn't blame him for what had happened, or for abandoning their dream of becoming pirates, but a small part of him was still scared that his brother wouldn't forgive him.

"Hey." A soft voice snapped Sabo out of his thoughts, staring down the revolutionary peered into familiar grey eyes currently filled with affection "Hey Ace." The beaming grin he got in return, was one of the brightest smiles Sabo had ever seen on his brothers face.

Which is probably why he was distracted enough not to notice the fist aimed at _his own_ face "What the _fuck_ Ace?!" The pirate pointed an accusatory finger at his brother "That's for not telling us you were alive you dumb ass."

Sabo opened his mouth to protest, but before he could respond he found himself pulled into a bone crushing hug "Welcome back." Unable to help himself the revolutionary gave out a choked sob "I'm back."

And just like that, the two teens broke down into harsh sobs, soft words and agressive reassurances.

It took the two brothers five hours to give each other a somewhat basic summary of their lives up till now (Ace deciding to hide his time travelling for now). And while both teen's knew the other was hiding things from them, neither made a move to interrogate the other.

They had _time_ , and for today they wanted to enjoy the fact that all three brothers were alive and well. The darker parts of their lives could come later.

Eventually the two brothers finished talking and settled into a comfortably familiar silence "Hey Sabo?" The revolutionary felt a touch of apprehension at his brother's tone, but brushed it off (a _terrible_ mistake, as it would later turn out) as being unjustifiably paranoid.

"Yes Ace?" The pirate grinned, and all of a sudden a shiver ran down Sabo's spine, as he remembered all the crazy shit the Spades had pulled since joining the grandline.

"I'm going to go pull a prank on an ally of the strongest man in the world... Want to help?" Sabo choked on air as he stared at his brother in disbelief "Ace. _Why?"_ The pirate Captain grinned.

"Cause I've decided I don't want to kill Whitebeard anymore, but one of his allies pisses me off, so I'm gonna go prank him! And I need you and your super sneaky spy skills to help me pull it off! Besides my crew said the want a break from my 'insanity' and I need someone to go with me to make sure I don't drown.."

Sabo froze upon hearing the first sentence. The revolutionary may not have seen Ace in years, but he still knew his brother well enough to know that there was no way in _hell_ he would have given up his goal of taking Whitebeard's head, unless something serious had convinced him otherwise.

Deciding to dig into it later, Sabo took one look at his brother's ( _incredibly_ effective) puppy dog eyes and groaned. Well aware that he was about to succumb to whatever crazy scheme his brother had planned.

After all, for all that Sabo had been better at stealth, Ace had _always_ been the tactician of the ASL brothers. Meaning that if the freckled man thought his crazy ass plan of pranking one of Whitebeards allies would work, it _probably_ would.

After all the Spades had gotten this far without getting caught.

Letting out a sigh of resignation, Sabo nodded. "I need to call Koala first. And I would like it on record that I protested this." Ace's only response was a shark like grin with _far_ too many teeth. Sabo sighed once more, he'd brought this madness upon himself hadn't he?

Not that he'd trade it for _anything_ in the world.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Haruta was dying.

There was no way around it. The youngest commander was dying of laughter. But he _just. Couldn't. Stop._

Not that he was the only one. Thatch seemed ready to bow down and worship whoever was responsible for this latest prank, whereas Marco seemed torn between wanting to applaud the perpetrator or strangle them himself.

Now, it was no secret that attacking _one_ Whitebeard was equivalent to attacking _all_ of them. However there were absolutely zero rules about retaliation for pranking one of their allied crews.

Not that anyone had been bold enough to try such a thing before now (or at least not anyone _outside_ of the crew *cough* _Haruta and_ _Thatch *_ cough*). Which is probably why the Whitebeards were understandably both surprised and amused to wake up to find their ally Squardo's updated bounty poster.

Squardo's usually subdued pink hair had been plaited in an elaborate braid around a delicate tiara, and dyed bubblegum pink. And if that wasn't bad enough then there was his _clothes_.

The usually fearsome pirate had been dressed up as a _magical girl_ , complete with a frilly skirt, magic staff and cute animal companion. (And just where the perpetrator found a pink baby alligator Marco would never know...)

The worst part, was that the victim in question had _no idea_ how it had happened. One minute Squardo had been peacefully walking round an island, and the next he had woken up on the ground in a pink frilly tutu.

If not for the fact that the photo had been sent anonymously (and without a customary ace of Spades playing card) Marco would have suspected the Spade pirates. But as it stood he wasn't sure the Spades were even capable of that much stealth against a new world pirate (even if several marine bases would report otherwise.)

Not only that, but the Spades probably would have claimed credit for such a prank, they also lacked a conclusive motive. Which just made the Phoenix even more confused, because just who the hell _did_ have the motive _and_ the skills to pull this off?!

The first division commander wanted to cry, he had been _so close_ to finally finishing his paperwork, and now he had to go around interviewing random islanders, in the hope that one of them had seen something that could help lead him to the perpetrator.

Unfortunately due to his stress, the poor overworked phoenix failed to notice his father requesting one of his brother's to go to Paradise and buy some Sake. A request which would later have some... _interesting_ consequences.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Safely back on the card deck Ace stared at the latest bounty posters and giggled once more. Sabo rolled his eyes affectionately, still somewhat amused at how resigned his brother's crew seemed to his antics.

"So what's your problem with Squardo anyway?" Ace's giggling died out, replaced with a solemn look "I just don't like him." The revolutionary could tell there was something more to the story but decided not to push, for now.

Pulling his brother up from where he was sat on the deck, Sabo gave a small smile "Koala should be coming to pick me up sometime today." Ace pouted but gave a nod before pulling a slip of paper out from his pockets.

Handing over the paper like an over excited puppy, Sabo couldn't help but smile as he looked down to see a number scrawled down in his brother's familiar handwriting. "Ace I've already got your Den Den Mushi number?"

The freckled teen shook his head grinning "That's the Spades general number, this one's for my private Den Den Mushi. Y'know in case you ever want to call me?" There was something slightly hopeful in Ace's eyes, something that did absolutely nothing to distract from the doubt in his voice.

It took everything the revolutionary had, not to hug his brother into oblivion. "I'll call." Ace grinned a somewhat grateful look on his face. A loud yell echoed from the opposite end of the deck and the two brothers grinned at each other, before going out to meet the irrate revolutionary.

"Koala!" The sun pirate punched her partner in the face before casually proceeding to toss a folder towards Ace "I'm afraid I need the blonde idiot for a mission, so we're leaving now. That folder is all we've got on Blackbeard. Enjoy." Tipping his hat in thanks Ace gave his brother's partner a cheerful wave. "Watch over Sabo for me."

Ignoring the blondes sputters, at how _'he_ wasn't the one who _needed_ watching' and how Ace was _'a giant_ hypocrite' The pirate gave one last cheerful wave as his brother sailed off into the sunset. Staring at the revolutionaries retreating boat, Ace took a moment to reflect.

Sabo was _alive._ Alive and well, and if it hadn't been for his second chance, Ace never would have known. Because the pirate hadn't gone far enough back in time to effect Sabo's 'death', meaning Sabo had to have been alive in his original timeline to, and Ace _hadn't known._

The worst thing, was that in this timeline Sabo had regained his memories after meeting Ace. Meaning that because they had never met in the original timeline Sabo probably would never had remembered unless he had somehow run into Luffy or...

Ace paled as the thought struck him. _Marineford._ One of the most publicised executions in the _world,_ meaning there was _no way_ the revolutionary army _wouldn't_ have had a copy. One which Sabo would have eventually seen.

The freckled teen felt like throwing up, if he hadn't travelled back in time Sabo probably would've recovered his memories after Marineford. Meaning his brother would have woken up after _finally_ remembering his family, only to find one of them _dead._

The pirate's fists clenched, and Ace felt the urge to go _punch something_ until it _stopped moving_. Preferably Teach. Letting out a deep breath, Ace tried to force himself to calm down. Eventually, after ten minutes of breathing, the logia no longer felt like setting the world on fire and laughing in the ashes.

Looking down at the wanted poster still in his hands, Ace couldn't help but smile at the reminder that Sabo was alive and well (and being forced into helping him with pranks). Letting out one last deep sigh, Ace let his smile grow, he wasn't going to waste his time dwelling on what _could_ have been.

Right now both his brothers were healthy and happy (though Luffy was probably bored out of his mind stuck on Goa alone), and Ace had every intention of keeping it that way.

Feeling much more positive Ace went to hang up Squardo's wanted poster on the Spade's prank board. (Complete with Lady Spades bounty posters, the Marines psychological reports, and a written copy of every rumour the Spades had created about Akainu.)

Looking at Squardo's poster Ace couldn't help but feel a mix of irritance and pity for the other man. The young Captain knew what it felt like to truly _hate_ someone. To let that hatred twist inside you, until you were forced to let it out, no matter how undeserving the target.

Ace had attacked Whitebeard in an attempt to rid himself of that soul-destroying self hatred.

So Ace could _maybe_ understand how Squardo had allowed himself to be manipulated by Akainu's words. _But that did_ **not** _excuse his actions._ Whitebeard had forgiven the pirate for his misdeeds, so Ace couldn't kill Squardo, nor would he particularly want to.

But that didn't mean he couldn't get back at the man, in a series of petty and inexplicable humiliations.

Somewhere in the distance Squardo shivered.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

It had been one week since Squardo's updated bounty poster, when the letter arrived.

Now it should be known that while news coos delivered mail to pirates and marines all over the seas, delivering normal mail in the same manner ( _especially_ across the grandline) was _extremely_ expensive. Which is why most seafarers waiting to get to a stable island before delivering a letter.

However even with the added cost, it wasn't so much the letter itself that was so unusual, but rather the sender. Why the _hell_ was the _W_ _orld Government_ writing to Ace?! Not only that, but the carrier bird had clearly been instructed not to approach Ace until he was alone.

Cautiously opening the letter, Ace took one look at the contents and burst into laughter, accidentally summoning the rest of his crew onto the deck. The Spades stared at their Captain in apprehension until eventually Dret plucked up the courage to ask what the hell was going on "What is it Captain?"

The freckled teen tried to respond to his treasurer, but instead burst into another bout of helpless laughter. Dusty sighed "Look's like he finally lost it. Make sure everyone who bet otherwise pays Dret."

Ace stopped laughing and pouted at his first mate "I've not lost it. It's just that I've just gotten a _very_ interesting offer from the world government." That got more than a few raised eyebrows, as Ace grinned and passed the letter over to his first mate who also burst out into laughter.

Seeing his crew's curious looks, Ace decided to explain "Essentially, the _esteemed_ world government, has decided to offer me a Warlord position. On the condition that I betray my so called 'sister' by turning her over to the Marines."

There was a momentary pause before every Spade on deck burst into laughter. "Oh my God, they're offering you a position to turn yourself in." Deciding it was in his best interest to abandon what little of his sanity remained, Paddy grabbed what remained Deuce's drink and chugged it down.

Ignoring the sniper's promises of vengeance the young pirate turned to face his Captain "The world used to be sane Captain. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, to bring it to this level of _utter_ _madness._ But I'm sure it's somehow your fault!"

Ace gave the teen a commiserating pat on the back "There, there Paddy. Sanity is dead, just enjoy the madness."

Ignoring Paddy's sobbing Ace turned to the rest of his crew a wild grin in place "New competition, whoever comes up with the best way to refuse the government's _generous_ offer gets an extra day off training!" The Spades got a frightening gleam in their eyes as their smiles turned sharp. This was gonna be fun.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Somewhere, miles away, Sengoku felt the confusing urge to go and brutally murder Garp for his sins.

What sins that may be, the Marine had no idea. But he was sure whatever it was, it was _definitely_ Garps fault.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys! So first of all I want to give an overwhelming thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter!! **In term of pairings, I have decided not to do a pairing.** Though there may be slight hints of __MarcoAce_ _I'm not gonna go out of my way to write a pairing, so it might be implied but that's about all. Other than that next chapter will bring a **Whitebeard commander** , which one is a surprise for now, but again thank you so much for everyone's comments and ideas I've really loved reading them!!!_ _Hope you enjoyed the chapter! And thank you all so much for_ _ **over 200 followers**!!!!!! Next chapter will be up next week!!!! _


	11. Insanity

Namur took one look at the now familiar jolly Roger, and groaned. When the Fishman had originally been asked by Oyaji to get some Sake from paradise, he had never _actually_ considered that he might run into the infamous Spade pirates.

Unfortunately luck did not seem to be on his side, as the Fishman noticed a very familiar orange cowboy hat amongst the crowded market. Now, Namur could easily admit to being curious about the youth who had managed to catch so many of his family's attention.

However Namur could _also_ admit that he was _incredibly_ hung over right now, and _really_ not equipped to deal with the particular brand of insanity that the Spades had so quickly become famous for.

Unfortunately, leaving was also not an option as he was here on a request for Oyaji. Letting out a heavy sigh, the commander turned around to walk to the slightly less popular booze store a mile away, only to be met with the sight of an excited freckled teenager.

"Nooooo. Not you. I'm too hung over for this." Rather than take offence to the Fishman's horrified tone, the young Captain let out a soul warming laugh "Don't know what you're talking about commander! I'm a delight!"

Deciding that he couldn't be bothered to respond, Namur started to walk towards the shops only to be stopped once more by the freckled teen. Shooting the teenage Captain his best glare, Namur faltered as he noticed the large Sake bottle in the teen's hand.

A bottle, the _exact_ same size and brand as the one he had been sent to collect. Seeing his apparent interest, the teen grinned and lifted the bottle in front of him.

"I have a proposal for you Mr eighth division commander." Namur paused before giving the teen a considering look, a hint of steel in his gaze "That depends on your request."

Ace grinned excitedly "Nothing that will make you go against your crew, or morals I promise. It'll even let you indulge in your hobby." The fishman was intrigued in spite of himself how the _hell_ would this kid know his hobby?!

Eventually the commander decided to indulge his curiosity, after all there wasn't much that such a rookie crew could do to harm him, and the man couldn't deny feeling intrigued at the teen's actions.

After all, what's the worst that could happen?

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco stared at the paper in utter horror.

How _could_ he? How could Namur _betray_ him like this?

Because despite the fact that his brother wasn't mentioned anywhere in the article, the first division commander would know the Fishman's artistic handiwork _anywhere_.

Marco lit the paper on fire. Ignoring his siblings questioning gazes, and surprised shouts, the phoenix's hands clenched in anger. The poor first division commander had just spent the last _three days_ flying around different islands to see if anyone had seen anything about Squardo's attacker, only to come back empty handed and see _this monstrosity._

Namur was meant to be his _sane_ sibling, the one who _didn't_ increase the poor phoenix's already huge pile of paperwork. Somewhere inside the first division commander something _broke._

A hard glint entered the Marco's eye, there would be _retribution_ for this betrayal.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Miles away from the Moby Dick where one _very_ irate first division commander had just sworn vengeance, Shanks stared down at the same paper in something akin to disbelief.

He'd known Ace was slightly crazy when they'd first met. Hell, all D's were at _least_ a _little bit_ insane, but he'd never thought the kid could be capable of something like _this._

Looking up at his first mate, who was mirroring his expression, Shanks couldn't help but grin at the insanity of the situation. "I think the kid's actually _more insane_ than _Garp_ is. And _that's_ saying something." Benn nodded in mute agreement, still staring in horror at the newspaper in front of him.

Not that Shanks could blame his first mate for his silence. After all, it had to have been the first time in human _history,_ that someone had managed to pull off something like _this._

After all, who the hell else (other than Ace apparently) would ever think to spray paint several marine battle ships bright yellow, before welding bits of them together to create what equated to a giant metal duck...

A giant metal duck, which had promptly been crashed into the side of the nearest marine base with the words _'fuck no, I will not betray my sister and become a Warlord'_ painted on the side of said Duck in neon orange, along with a customary ace of spades.

Shanks _really_ loved this kid.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sabo stared at the photo in bland disbelief, distantly wondering how the hell Ace had pulled this off. Because yes his brother had eaten the mera mera no mi, which would have made the welding possible. But that didn't change the fact that his brother had the artistic talent of a slightly demented three year old.

Not only that, but Ace wouldn't have been able to go into the water to spray paint the bottom of the boat anyway, meaning his brother had, had help. Dialling up the pirate's number, Sabo waited until he heard a familiar click to start his rant.

"What the _hell_ Ace?! Who the fuck _welds_ two navy battle ships together and paints it like a duck?! Why the fuck didn't you just write them a refusal letter like a normal person?"

"Well hello to you too Sabo." The ex-noble tried not to smile at his brother's dryly amused tone "Seriously though... Why a duck?" The revolutionary watched the Den Den Mushi break into his brother's familiar grin.

"Cause I thought it would be cool, like a giant metal version of a rubber duck! Though in my defence, Paddy's the one who suggested crashing a ship through a Marine base with my refusal on it."

Somewhere in the background Sabo heard someone, probably Paddy, shouting about how _'It wasn't my fault. I was only joking about crashing the ship, it wasn't my fault Ace was insane enough to take it literally.'_

Unable to keep a straight face, the revolutionary burst into laughter "Certainly the most interesting refusal to a warlord position that I've ever seen. But weren't you trying to keep your devil fruit a secret? The World Government's gonna know somethings up after this."

The pirate let out an unconcerned laugh "I'm not exactly trying to hide it, it's more the fact that I've not met an opponent which needed me to use my fruit yet." Ace's tone turned darker "And I've been trying to get used to fighting without it, just in case something happens."

Sabo paused, it wasn't the first time Ace had alluded to being worried about relying too heavily on his devil fruit, and this made it abundantly clear that it _definitely_ wasn't a coincidence.

Unfortunately a phone call was _not_ a good place to address whatever issues his brother might be having, so the revolutionary decided to let it drop for now.

"I'd hate to be the person who first forces you to use your fruit. They're going to be in for a nasty surprise." The dark look on the Den Den Mushi faded, replaced by a smile and a laugh "That's true. The look on Namur's face when I used my fire to weld the ships together was priceless. I ended up taking a photo, just in case it comes in handy for later."

Sabo stared at the snail in suspicion, Namur wasn't a common name. And there was only one person he could think of with the same name who might've been down to helping Ace fuck with the marines.

"Ace... _Please_ don't tell me you teamed up with one of Whitebeard's commanders to create that giant yellow monstrosity." There was a moment of silence "Fine then, I won't tell you. And don't call Bob a monstrosity! You'll hurt his feelings!"

Sabo groaned, because _of_ _course_ his brother had named the duck. Why did he expect anything else?! Shaking his head, the revolutionary decided to focus on the more important question "How the _hell_ did you convince a Whitebeard commander to help you anyway?!"

Ace smirked "A healthy combination of bribery and blackmail!" Deciding he didn't want to know, Sabo gave a resigned sigh "Just be careful Ace." There was a small smile on the other end of the line "I will be don't worry. Besides I have a plan!"

Sabo couldn't help but smirk "And does that plan account for the fact that Gramps is going to kill you as soon as he sees what you've done?"

The Den Den Mushi paled, and the revolutionary couldn't help but take a moment to be impressed, by both the variety and the creativity of his brother's swear vocabulary.

Unfortunately it wasn't long before Ace's look of fear was replaced with a shark toothed grin "Come to think of it, Gramps doesn't know you're alive yet." It was Sabo's turn to pale "You wouldn't."

The Den Den Mushi's grin widened "I think we _both_ know I _would_. After all, I may be a pirate but _you're_ a _revolutionary._ _And_ you're working under Gramps's kid at that." _That_ made the revolutionary pause "Wait what?"

"Huh, I didn't tell you already? Dragon is Lu's dad." Sabo gaped down at the Den Den Mushi "You're joking right?" the freckled pirate laughed "fraid not. I think Dragon got all the brains in the family though."

The revolutionary groaned in agreement "That explains so much. Anyway I need to go, so I'll try to call again in a few weeks. Try not to do anything too crazy in the meantime?" Ace laughed "Not likely, but hey if that's what helps you sleep at night, then sure!"

Sabo gave a quick grin before hanging up. Looking at the newest list of uncovered slave holdings, the revolutionary felt his grin turn savage.

It was time to get to work.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Namur quietly tiptoed around the deck, desperately trying to avoid notice. He'd just _known_ that being the first commander to meet the Spades would screw him over eventually!

The fishman had arrived back on the Moby dick half an hour ago, and had been actively trying to avoid Haruta and Thatch ever since. If the two commanders would stop chasing him for five minutes, then Namur could hand over the bribe he'd picked up for them and be done with it.

Unfortunately the two commanders had proven themselves to be completely uninterested in talking. They also had a look in their eyes, which was a touch too close to insanity for Namur to be comfortable with trying to talk them round.

The only real option for the Fishman, was to go find Oyaji. Once he was with Whitebeard Thatch and Haruta would have to stop trying to kill him, which would hopefully give him enough time to bribe them into stopping. Smiling at his plan, the Fishman gave a small yelp of surprise at the feeling of a hand being placed on his shoulder.

Turning around, Namur came face to face with the first division commander, and gave a relieved smile "Marco, thank God it's you. Thatch and Haruta won't stop chasing me for meeting the Spades first! I don't suppose you know where Oyaji is at the minute?"

The phoenix gave a small smile "Yup he's in one of the smaller kitchens stealing some alcohol. Come on, I'll take you there." Namur sighed in relief and started to follow his oldest brother unhesitatingly, blissfully unaware of the vengeful glint in Marco's eyes.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Haruta and Thatch stared at Namur in complete and utter shock.

The Fishman they had spent the last hour chasing, was currently tied up in the rigging, wearing the most hideous duck costume either of them had ever seen in their _lives_.

Finally dragging his eyes away from the monsterous scene in front of them, Thatch looked at Haruta and spoke "Did you do this?"

Haruta shook his head in mute amazement, and more than a little fear "I wish. You?" Thatch also shook his head "Not me either. So who?" Both pirates paused as they heard the cheerful whistling of Bink's Sake.

Cautiously peering around the corner, to where the noise was coming from, the two commanders were shocked to notice their eldest brother whistling happily. Despite the cheerful tune, there was a somewhat sadistic gleam in Marco's eyes that made both commanders take a step back in fear.

Moving as quietly as possible, the two commanders quickly moved out of earshot, before making a silent agreement not to create any excess paperwork for the next few days.

After all Marco may be fun to tease, but _no one_ was willing to risk it when the phoenix was pushed far enough to retaliate.

Not after what Marco had done to Vista the last time he was pushed too far...

Both Commanders shuddered in fear. This was going to be a _long_ few days.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku took _one look_ at the latest damage report, and resisted the urge to groan. He'd _told_ the elder stars that trying to recruit the Ace of Spades would be a fruitless endeavour, but had they believed him?

No, of course not. So not only did Sengoku _still_ need to recruit a new Warlord, but now he had to deal with the fact that two of his metal warships had been welded together to create a giant fucking duck. Because why the hell not?!

Garp (being the helpful person he was) had taken one look at the paper and had promptly run off to start the second Garpocolypse.

Sengoku was so _done_ with this shit

Why had he become a Marine again?

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Hiding his exasperated expression behind a stern facade, the old Marine sat up straighter "Come in." the marine, gave a small salute "I've been sent to inform you that Admiral Akainu has returned from his mission Sir."

Sengoku nodded, barely resisting the urge to groan. The old Marine somehow doubted that Akainu had heard the rumours yet. Which meant when he finally _did_ hear them, Sengoku would _also_ have to deal with the destruction he caused _on top of_ all his other issues.

Sometimes Sengoku _hated_ being in charge.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys! so first off_ _quite a few people mentioned having Namur as the first person to meet the Spades which I actually really liked the idea of_ , _Namur doesn't get enough love! As for the **Bob the duck...** I literally couldn't help myself the idea popped into my head and refused to leave_.

 _In answer to some of the reviews! First of all to **ParrllelPenSW** thank you for the nice review as always! I hope Ace's refusal satisfied you XD to answer your question I have read the latest chapter of One Piece and honestly I loved the reveal of Kaido's true form, I really can't wait for the next chapter, I hate cliffhangers, but I bet the fighting is gonna be awesome! To **nolalin** I'm glad you're enjoying the story! And the Marines will probably catch on... eventually XD. And finally to **amreed** I totally agree the idea of poor Marco being forced to go from island to island really made me laugh for some reason, unfortunately the poor overworked man seems to have snapped. Oops? _

_Anyway thank you so much to everyone else who reviewed, I hope you've enjoyed the chapter! The next one may be slightly late due to a report I have been majorely procrastinating on XD! please leave a review to let me know what you think!_


	12. Reveals

Ace let out a growl of frustration, and resisted the urge to go and punch someone. This should be _easy!_ Ace _knew_ from past experience that his crew wouldn't abandon him when faced with his heritage. They hadn't abandoned him at _Marineford_ after all.

But then again, by that point his crew had know him for about three years, and they'd been backed up by an _Emperor_. While in this timeline, he'd known them less than a year and they were completely alone.

The teen resisted the urge to snarl once more, Ace trusted his crew. But that trust didn't block out the _years_ worth of memories, of people saying _exactly_ what should be done to a child of Gol D Roger.

Ace bit back a flinch as he felt a hand tap his shoulder "You ok Ace?" The teen turned to look at his first mate, taking note of the real concern in his eyes, and smiled "I'm fine. Tell everyone to be in the plotting room in ten minutes though. I've got something to say."

Dusty paused consideringly before giving a small nod "Got it Captain." Watching his first mate take off, Ace let out a small sigh. This time he would be brave enough to say what he'd never had the chance to in his previous time line.

This time he'd reveal his heritage to his crew on his _own_ terms. Not because of the government, not because of Teach, but because _he_ decided to.

It took twelve minutes for the last of the Spades to make it to the meeting room. Seeing the last person settle down, Ace gave a small smile.

"Ok I'm going to be blunt with all of you. First of all we're currently ten minutes away from the nearest island, and once we get there the logpose will take a further fifteen minutes to settle. Meaning that after I say what I need to, you'll have about twenty minutes to decide if you want to remain as a Spade pirate or not."

Ace made sure to meet the eyes of every single crew member as he spoke letting them know just how utterly serious he was. Seeing that they understood the young Captain gave a small nod and continued.

"First of all, once we cross into the New World our opponents are going to get _much stronger_ , meaning we're also going to need to be stronger. And with that increased strength, the government's interest in us will also grow, which is where my information comes in."

Ace took a deep breath "There's an issue with my heritage, and I won't lie, the _second_ it's discovered, we will have the _full force_ of the world government after us. If you aren't willing to risk that then leave the room now, because the more you know, the more danger you'll be in."

Unsurprisingly not a single person left. For all that they were considered a rookie crew, the Spades were still _pirates_. Opposing the world government was what they _did_.

A D shaped grin etched on his face, Ace stared at the family that had stayed with him through thick and thin, and _willingly_ spoke the words which had once damned him in a previous timeline. "I currently go by my mother's name, but my birth name was Gol D Ace."

There was a moment of silence before the Spade's processed what that truly meant. "Holy Shit." Ace _almost_ wanted to laugh, but before he could Kalin spoke up "You're only seventeen, the dates don't match." There was no accusation in his voice, merely curiosity.

Ace gave a small nod "My mother extended the pregnancy at the cost of her life." Suddenly Deuce let out a small gasp of realisation "Garp hid you. That's how you survived, but why the _fuck_ would a Marine hero?"

The freckled teen let out a bitter laugh "Because I was a _baby._ I'd never even _met_ my father, and despite that, they would have _slaughtered_ me for his blood." The Spades fell silent as Ace shook his head.

Suddenly the teen didn't feel like answering anymore questions "I'll be up on deck if you need me, but you have twenty minutes to figure out your choice."

Walking out onto the deck alone, Ace couldn't help but hope he hadn't made a terrible mistake.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace had been stood on the deck for five minutes when Dusty approached him "You're an idiot, you know that Captain?"

The teen let out a chuckle "Can't argue with that." The two stood in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Dusty spoke once more "You've been planning to tell us for a while now."

It wasn't a question, but Ace answered anyway "I have. I was waiting for this island specifically though. There's no Marine base here, and the logpose settles quickly, so it would be easy to make a quick get away just in case someone did manage to contact the World Government."

"If you know the risks, why tell us at all?" there was an innocent curiosity in the cowboy's voice, and Ace couldn't help but let out a rueful chuckle. "Because I trust you," Ace paused momentarily overcome with visions of Marineford "and because there's a storm coming. And if we are forced to go to war with the world, then you all deserve to know the reason _why_."

Dusty nodded in understanding, and the two fell into silence as they finally arrived on the Island. Giving one last nod to his first mate, Ace docked the ship and went to make some lunch. He'd placed his bets. Let the cards fall where they may.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

From his giant chair on deck Whitebeard chuckled, as he noticed all of his sons and daughters being _extra_ careful not to push Marco too far. It had been one day since Namur's unfortunate... _accident_ (or at least that's what it was according to _Marco_ ) And since then the crew had been on their best behaviour.

Everyone knew not to bother the Phoenix when he got like this.

It had only happened a grand total of three times since the crew had first formed. And each time had left the sons and daughters of the Whitebeard pirates begging for an end to the incessant pranks the first division Commander was capable of when mad.

After all, Haruta and Thatch may be the pranksters of the crew, but Marco was stealthy, observant, and above all _patient_. A somewhat unholy combination when it was used to prank someone.

Thankfully it took a _lot_ for the Phoenix to be pushed that far, so it didn't happen too often. Still grinning in amusement Whitebeard let out a loud, rumbling laugh to draw his children's attention "Commander's meeting in ten minutes."

Hearing several murmurs of agreement, the giant pirate made his way towards the meeting room, eager to hear what Namur might have learnt about the Spades in his most recent meeting.

After all, it must have been a fairly eventful encounter if his Son had somehow been convinced into helping create a giant duck.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Haruta looked at Namur, barely managing to conceal his amusement when he noticed the other Commander sitting as far away from Marco as humanly possible. Thatch was also trying to hide his laughter, but was clearly failing miserably at it, if Namur's glare was anything to go off.

Though in all fairness, had the Phoenix's wrath been aimed at either of the two pranksters they would also have sat as far away from their eldest brother as physically possible.

And despite the laughter, both men had even silently agreed to lay off Namur for the next few days. After all, Marco's expression said he wasn't done just yet, and adding pranks on top of the Phoenix's revenge would just be _cruel._

Eventually, once all the Commanders had settled down (and stopped laughing at Namur), Whitebeard let out a loud cough "So let's hear about your run in with the Spades Namur, what did you manage to learn?" The Fishman stopped glaring at Thatch and focused all his attention on his Captain, amusement obvious in his eyes.

"First of all, they're all absolutely _insane_ Oyaji. I mean, their Captain is _definitely_ mad, but the rest of the Spades seemed to have gained some sort of mild insanity through mere exposure! One of them started crying halfway through our planning session for creating Bob about how he _'used to be sane'_ I personally, have some doubts on the matter."

A few of the Commanders chuckled at that, _no one_ who set off to sea was wholly sane. As usual it was Whitebeard who asked the important question "Bob?" Namur gave his father a somewhat sheepish smile "We may or may not have named the giant duck." Which managed to set off all the commanders.

Waiting until the laughter had died down Namur continued to talk "In more relevant news, the Spade's Captain, Ace, is also _lot_ stronger and a _lot_ better informed then we'd initially assumed."

Whitebeard let out a small hum, and Namur noticed more than one of the commanders had sat up in interest "Oh, and how's that Son?" The Fishman paused, an unexpectedly serious look crossing his face "You know how we confirmed that all the Spades had unlocked at least the basics of haki?"

There were nods of affirmation "Well while a majority of the Spade crew are well on their way to mastering at least one of the two aspects, their Captain already has both up to a _more_ than acceptable level. Not only that, but the kid's somehow been able to hide the fact he has a devil fruit, and a logia at that."

There was a pause as each commander considered the implications of those words. Having a devil fruit this far into the grandline wasn't unusual. Successfully _hiding_ one, to the point where even the _marines_ didn't know, was an anomaly to say the least. Especially a logia, which were notoriously difficult to control.

"Maybe he got it recently, which is why no one knew he had it?" Namur shook his head "The kid has _way_ too much control for that to be the case. From what his crew said, he seems to have had the power since East Blue."

"And he's not had to use it up till now?" Namur nodded, as all the commanders stared in shock. Getting that far into the grandline without being forced to use _every_ trick in your arsenal was _incredibly_ impressive. _Especially_ at the mere age of seventeen.

"If he has used his devil fruit in a fight, then his opponent hasn't lived to tell the tale." The room fell silent before Whitebeard spoke up once more "How would he compare against one of ours?"

Namur hesitated "It's hard to say Oyaji, I didn't see him fight with his devil fruit, merely use it to weld the ships together. But with his grip on haki, and fine tuned control of his fruit I'd place him just below us commanders. The only thing he seems to be missing, is experience. But even then, it's hard to tell his actual level without seeing him go all out."

Whitebeard stared at his Sons consideringly, but before he could say anything else Haruta piped up "You said he was better informed then we expected, what did you mean by that?" Namur let out a wry grin.

"When I said I ran into the kid, what I really meant, is that the kid approached me with a bottle of sake the _exact same_ size and brand as the one Oyaji requested, and then proceeded to declare he knew about my sculpting hobby and bribed me into helping."

And ok, the teen had also _blackmailed_ the fishman with some pretty embarrassing stories, that his siblings had _no need_ to hear about. Luckily for the Fishman, Whitebeard spoke before anyone could dig any deeper.

"I think I'd like to meet this Brat."

The commanders all grinned.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace stared at his crew, fists clenched, and a mixture of happiness and disbelief in his eyes. Logically the teen had known that the chance of his crew abandoning him after coming this far was somewhat low.

Emotionally, the freckled teen had been ready to sail off on his own, pursued by a buster call of the highest proportion (probably lead by Akainu knowing his luck).

Which is why the sight of the other twelve Spades standing in front of him, resolve shining in their eyes, was enough to bring the young Captain to tears. "You're sure?" Ace managed to keep his voice steady, but no one could mistake the doubt in it.

The Spades grinned, somewhat enjoying how emotional their usually unflappable (and slightly insane) Captain was being "We are." Alice stepped forwards with a gentle smile on her face "If the government that tried to enslave me is right, I'd be much happier being wrong. We're with you Captain. Until the very end."

Dusty, stepped forward as well, and pulled the freckled teen into a rough hug, which soon became a dog pile when the other members of the crew all joined in. Unable to help it, Ace burst into laughter, tears still streaming down his face.

Grinning widely at his crew, the teen raised a fist in the air "In that case! Let's set sail!" Dusty smiled, a serious look in his eyes "Good call Captain, and after that... I think it's time we increased our training again. Just in case." Ace's smile was as bright as the sun as he nodded in agreement.

And in that moment, each and every one of the Spade pirates found a new resolve. Ace was their Captain. He was brilliant, caring, and more than a _little bit_ insane. But most importantly of all, he was _**theirs.** _

And they would do _whatever_ it took to protect him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sabo stared across the auction house and did his upmost best _not_ to react at the sight of one Marshall D Teach. Sitting next to him Koala gave a deceptively sweet smile, before grabbing her partner's arm in a bruising grip.

"Don't react, we don't have the strength or the time to fight him right now Blue. Stick to the plan." The ex-noble wanted to protest, but unfortunately Koala was (as she so often was) right.

The auction house they were currently sat in was primarily famous for it's slave trading, and while there were no actual slaves on sale for the day, Sabo and Koala's were acting as backup while their comrades ransacked the auction house for any information that could be useful.

They hadn't anticipated Blackbeard being here as well.

Moving his lips to his partner's ear, Sabo gave a smile that practically screamed of flirtation to any outside observers "Any idea what he might be here for?" giving a demure giggle Koala brought a hand to her mouth to disguise what she was saying "The only thing I can think of is the devil fruit they were planning on auctioning off tonight."

Sabo raised an eyebrow in curiosity as his partner smirked viciously "The auctioneer hasn't been able to identify it, but it _was_ a paramedia fruit." The former amnesiac immediately picked up on the key word in the sentence "Was?"

Koala's grin turned savage "Jay stole it earlier along with some of the other goods due to be on sale today. That should hopefully be enough of a distraction so that they can sneak into the auctioneers office."

Sabo let out a small snort, before his expression turned serious "Do you think we could get a photo of Teach?" Koala grinned but before she could respond an array of noise errupted from behind the auction stage.

Hearing a distinctive whistle Sabo shot a serious look at his partner, before casually dropping a smoke bomb into the middle of the auction house. Ignoring the cries of distress the former amnesiac watched Teach sneak down a corridor "Go find Jay's group, I'm going to try and get some proof on Blackbeard."

Koala scowled, but didn't waste time arguing "Be careful Sabo. I mean it." The teen nodded before running in the direction he had last seen the Whitebeard pirate.

It wasn't long before the revolutionary came upon Teach having a hushed conversation with the owner of the auction house, discretely snapping a picture of the two men Sabo turned to leave only to be confronted by the face of the very man he'd been attempting to follow.

"So, why is a noble trying to follow me?" Realising the man hadn't caught him taking photos, Sabo forced himself to relax in the man's hold and put on a (somewhat) innocent smile as his eyes widened.

"Oh my god you really are Marshall D Teach! Listen man I'm so sorry about that, I'm with the revolutionary army and I didn't realise who you were before. We were unaware the Whitebeards were involved in an operation here."

The revolutionary watched as the older man's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, and prayed he had the skills to pull this next deception off. "My partner noticed you leaving and asked me to check if it was really you, and if Whitebeard had sent you to look for information as well?"

Sabo could practically see the wheels turning in the pirate's head, on one hand if he killed Sabo it eliminated a witness tying him to the auction house (because whatever the reason the man was here, Sabo _seriously_ doubted it was a Whitebeard sanctioned mission).

However Teach didn't know who Sabo's partner was. And if they managed to report back to the revolutionaries about Teach's appearance at the auction house before the pirate found them, then the revolutionaries would realise something was wrong. Especially if one of their operatives turned up dead after going to find him.

Seeing the man arrive at a conclusion, Sabo continued to smile sweetly, pretending he hadn't seen the darkness in the pirate's eyes "Don't worry about it Kid, Oyaji ordered me to look into the devil fruit they had here but it looks like it went missing in the chaos."

The revolutionary let his eyes widen "That's terrible, if we hear anything about it we'll let you know. It's the least we can do after causing the chaos that let the theif escape."

Teach smirked, but before he could say anything else a loud shout echoed throughout the corridor "Blue, we've got what we came for, we need to leave _now._ " Grateful for the excuse to leave, Sabo tipped his hat to the pirate, and ran out of the corridor before he could react.

Running towards their boat, Sabo voluntarily accepted the punch in the face Koala gave him the second he stepped on board "Sabo you fucking _moron_." The revolutionary gave a small snort "I know, but the photo might help Ace when he eventually goes to the Whitebeards."

Koala was about to respond when Jay appeared out of nowhere with the rest of the revolutionaries, and joined the two teens "Bet it's not nearly as much help as the documents I just found."

Taking the two sheets of paper the older man offered him, Sabo read through the documents only to let out a wordless snarl of rage.

Looking at his two Comrades, Sabo wordlessly handed the documents over to Koala, not bothering to watch the fury which would inevitably appear on her face. "Jay I need at least three copies of these documents as soon as possible. Koala go tell the navigator's to set a course for the card deck. Ace is going to want to see this."

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys, so first of all I'm really sorry this is later than I had planned, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I even included some **plot** instead of just random shenanigans! XD Anyway moving on to reviewers! _

_First of all to **B00khound** the reason Marco "flipped his birdy shit" was because he was tired and frustrated after searching for Squardo's attacker and Namur being away to create Bob increased his paperwork. He recognised the sculpture as Namur's work because his brother has a very distinct artistic sense which is very easy to recognise, hope this helps :)_

 _Next to **V-Marie-Ashes** i'm glad you're enjoying the story and I promise more of Ace's insane shit soon *evil laughter* To **Katske** I hope this helped fufill your craving XD and thank you so much for the nice review (I'm very happy to hear my story see ms addictive XD)! Finally to **ParrllelPenSW** Luffy is _definitely _going to suffer more because of Ace's actions but more on that next chapter, I also promise a little more on Sengoku next time!_

 _Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and please leave a review, they **feed** me and Bob!_ _Next chapter will hopefully be up next week!!!_


	13. Evidence

Ace stared down at the documents in his hands with something akin to disgust, and _furious_ rage "This is definitely genuine, have you managed to copy the document?" Sabo gave a short nod, not even bothering to joke about just who the flammable person here was.

"I have. Koala's taken the copy to Baltigo to keep on file, we'll leave you a second copy to pass onto Shanks if you need it as well." Ace nodded, fire still burning in his eyes "Thanks Sabo. I'll bring this to the Whitebeards as soon as I get the chance."

Sabo nodded in acknowledgement, a somewhat regretful look on his face "I need to get back to Baltigo Ace, are you sure you don't want any back up?" The hard look in the pirate's eyes softened slightly as he looked up at his brother "I'll be fine Sabo, I'm not planning on going after him alone. But the Whitebeards _need_ to know this information _now_. Before it's too late."

The revolutionary paused before giving a nod of understanding "Ok, just try not to do anything _too_ reckless. And for the love of god Ace, _call_ if you need the back up." the freckled teen nodded, a slightly bemused smile on his face.

"I will. But for the record I heard how you got those photos in the first place, so I _really_ don't think you have _any_ right to lecture me on recklessness "

The ex-noble smiled sheepishly a slight blush on his face "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Ace chuckled as his brother let out another small sigh "Anyway, I need to go, I was technically supposed to be back yesterday." The young Captain was about to say goodbye, when he felt himself being pulled into a tight hug.

"I mean it Ace. Stay _safe_ , I just remembered you, I don't want to lose you so soon." Ace gave another small nod. "I will, but only if you promise to do the same." brief shock flitted over the revolutionaries face before he gave Ace a sincere nod and a last quick hug "I'll hold you to that."

Without another word Sabo jumped off the boat and proceeded to melt into the crowd. Watching his brother go, Ace couldn't quite help the feral grin that formed on his face. He finally had what he needed. This time, it was his turn to keep his family safe.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks groaned at the loud ringing that echoed throughout the ship. Still thoroughly hungover from last night's celebration the red haired man proceeded to do what any responsible Captain would do in such a situation. "Benn, get the phone!"

Somewhere to the side of him, the Emperor heard an amused snort, "Sure thing Captain." The aforementioned Captain closed his eyes, ready to dose off into a peaceful sleep once more, only for Benn to deliberately open the curtains on his way to the Den Den Mushi.

Letting out a low whine as a beam of sunshine hit him square in the face, one of of the strongest men on the seas gave his first mate one of the worlds most pitiful glares. Deliberately ignoring his Captain's annoyance Benn picked up the snail, a look of innocence on his face "This is the red force."

"Hey Benn. Is Shanks there?" Recognising the voice as Ace's, Shanks realised that he wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. Sighing in resignation, the Emperor walked over to his bemused first mate and stole the snail off him "Right here Kiddo. What's up?" There was a slight pause.

"We've got enough evidence against Teach to go to Whitebeard." Shanks let out a low whistle, Blackbeard had proven to be a sneaky bastard so far, so the red haired man was very curious as to what had finally given him away "What did you find?"

There was a terrible rage in the teens voice, when he finally spoke "Teach had a contract with one of the slave auctions, in exchange for information on a devil fruit he seems to be searching for." Shanks felt his blood run cold, as ice cold _fury_ burned through his veins.

Unaware of the emperor's anger, the teen continued on "He used the name Blackbeard on the official contract, but he also signed a receipt for one of his shipments as Teach by accident. The receipt matches the terms of the original contract, and the handwriting is the same on both documents. Pair that with the photos we now have of Teach at the auction house, and it should be enough to prove his identity."

Shanks let out a slow breath trying to reign himself in "Can you send us a copy of those documents kid? We'll try and leave the vengeance to Whitebeard, but if we see Teach first, then we're gonna deal with him there and then. I don't like the idea of that scumbag being alive longer than absolutely necessary."

Some of the angry tension seemed to drain out of the snail's face "As long as he's dead, I don't care who does it. I'm hopefully gonna get into contact with the Whitebeards in the next few days." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Shanks raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"And how _exactly_ are you going to do that? From what I recall, the Whitebeards don't just go around giving out their Den Den number." Ace's face twisted into a savage grin.

"They don't, but each of Whitebeard's allies has a separate Den Den Mushi that connects directly to the Moby Dick. And I know _exactly_ where to get one." After listening to Ace's plan, Shanks couldn't help but laugh. The kid was absolutely _insane_ , and the Emperor loved it.

The red haired man also couldn't help but think about how _proud_ the Captain and his lover would have been to see their son now.

So _incredibly_ proud.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp glared down at his eldest Grandson's wanted poster in annoyance. Was it too much to ask that the brat keep a low profile for _once_ in his life?!

The old Marine was even beginning to _miss_ the first few weeks after the brat had set sail, where he'd had no news whatsoever. Sure he'd been _worried_ about the lack of news, but Garp was starting to recognise the fact that when Ace was involved, no news was _infinently_ better than the alternative.

An alternative that had lead to vandalised marine bases, giant ducks and a cross dressing magical girl pirate. The giant duck wasn't even the _worst_ of it.

Because for some inconceivable reason the Brat (because really, who else could it have been?) had decided to continue to pick a fight with one of Whitebeard's allies Squardo.

Ace had gone about this, by somehow infiltrating the infamous pirate's ship, and proceeding to steal all of their alcohol, before going on to hide it in seemingly improbable locations around the nearby islands. Including four of the local Marine bases.

As a result, the pink haired pirate and his crew had gone on a mini rampage, destroying most of the aforementioned Marine bases in a desperate attempt to reclaim their lost alcohol. Which also had the unfortunate side affect of generating a huge increase in paperwork.

The scowl on the marine's face intensified, not only could the old man _not_ go visit his idiot grandson, Sengoku had also banned him from 'training' the new recruits. Apparently his training techniques were 'traumatising' or some other such nonsense.

Now what was Garp supposed to do with his frustrations?!

Suddenly an idea popped into old man's head. He may not be able to visit his _eldest_ grandson for fear of drawing attention to his heritage, but he _could_ go visit his _youngest_ grandson!

The Marine laughed in triumph, it was perfect!

Not only could he escape his Ace induced paperwork, but it was also a chance to put Luffy on the right track to becoming a righteous Marine! Rather than the pirate miscreant Ace had become (not that he didn't love the brat anyway, but it was so much _safer_ being a Marine.)

Whistling cheerfully the Marine went off to terrorise his youngest grandson, completely unaware of the storm that was about to hit the world. _Hard._

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace stared at the Den Den Mushi in front of him, a slight smile on his face, now that he had Squardo's Den Den Mushi, getting in touch with the Whitebeards would be an easy task.

Turning his head towards his gathered crew mates, the freckled teen grinned "Good job pranking Squardo everyone. I'm going to contact the Whitebeards now, so everyone else head back to your duties."

Ignoring the good natured grumbles and laughter, Ace stared at his first mate inquisitively upon realising the man hadn't moved. "Dusty?" The cowboy gave a small smirk "I've finished my work for today Captain, if it's all the same to you I'd rather stay here and listen. Just in case."

The freckled teen couldn't help but feel a slight warmth in his chest, upon hearing the subtle overprotectiveness in his first mate's tone. "That's fine, but be careful what you say, this may require a touch of delicacy." Seeing his Captain's serious expression, the cowboy gave a solemn nod.

Seeing the older man understood, Ace shot him a quick grin, and dialled a number he had once memorised in his previous timeline.

It was time to begin.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Haruta was bored.

This wasn't a usual occurrence on the Moby Dick where there was always work to be done and pranks to be played. But unfortunately due to Marco's recently emerged dark side _**no one**_ was willing to take the risk of upsetting the already pissed off phoenix.

Which left the ship remarkably calm and quiet for the day, which _also_ had the unintended side affect of making Haruta very _very_ bored. Biting back a sigh, the shortest Commander considered going to bother Thatch, when a loud ringing echoed throughout the room.

Following the noise Haruta walked over to where they kept their allies Den Den Mushis and was delighted to see that the snail calling them was Squardo's. Meaning the older pirate might _finally_ have some more information on who had attacked his ship (because when alcohol was involved _prank_ was no longer an appropriate term).

Eagerly picking up the phone Haruta didn't bother waiting for the older pirate to talk first "Squardo, did you figure out who the evil alcohol thief was yet?" there was a short cough of distinct amusement on the other side of the line, followed by a dry and unfamiliar sounding voice "This is the evil alcohol thief, am I correct in assuming this is Commander Haruta of the Whitebeard pirates."

The youngest commander let out a small frown "Who are you and why have you called?" Because stealing from Squardo was fair enough, but who the hell _used_ said stolen property to call up the allied crew of the ship they'd stolen from?

 _Especially_ when that crew was the strongest one in the world.

The voice let out a happy laugh, seemingly undeterred by the harsh tone "Nice to meet you Commander, this is Portgas D Ace, Captain of the Spade pirates. Sorry for the drastic measures but I needed to have a conversation with you."

Haruta couldn't help but let out a laugh in return, Oars jr and Namur had been spot on in their assessment. The Brat had balls of _steel._ A giddy grin on his face, the Whitebeard pirate stared at the snail eagerly "Well then, before we get down to business I'd like to say that I'm a huge fan of your work, and we should definitely try combining forces at some point!"

Before Ace could reply, a second voice rang out from the snail "Please don't commander, Ace is destructive enough on his own. I'd hate to see what he'd be capable of with _your_ resources."

Haruta stifled a chuckle as he saw the Den Den Mushi let out an impressive pout "Ignore my first mate Dusty, he's just boring." Still grinning the small Commander decided to cut to the chase "Not that this isn't hilarious and all, but why did you contact me?"

All laughter died from Ace's face "We recently picked up some information that concerns your crew. Unfortunately it's sensitive information so it's something you're going to need to see in person to verify it's truth."

Haruta frowned, he liked the Spades, but he couldn't trust them just yet. And Ace's proposal sounded like a trap if he'd ever heard one, almost as if reading his thoughts, the teen continued.

"I understand this might sound like a trap but trust me it's not. You can inform your Captain of what's happening, and we'll let you pick the meeting place. I'd even recommend bringing your first division commander with you, because he's probably going to want to verify this as well. But whatever you do, you _cannot_ inform the rest of your crew of what's going on."

The Commander narrowed his eyes "And why ever not?" The snail's expression turned conflicted and eventually it was the first mate of the Spades who spoke.

"This information has the potential to do a _lot_ of damage Commander, and it's almost impossible to control information leaks with a crew as large as yours. We're not saying you can't share the information we give you, we just ask that you keep this quiet until after the meeting. Once you've heard what we have to say, you can decide how to proceed with what we've told you in regards to your crew."

Haruta paused to consider. On one hand, even though the terms would be in the Whitebeards favour, the Spades supposed information sounded suspicious, to say the least. On the other hand, the small Commander wasn't sure it was _possible_ to fake the look of desperation currently on Ace's face.

And so the Whitebeard pirate reluctantly decided to go with his gut "Where are you currently?" The look of relief on the Teen's face was obvious, as he answered the question "We're about three days sail away from Sabody."

The Whitebeard pirate paused, if he got Marco's help he could probably make it there in slightly less than a day's time "We'll find you. But be warned if this is a trap, it doesn't matter how much I like you, we will _end_ you."

The teen let out an understanding smile "I'd think less of you if you didn't. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon." And just like that the teen hung up the phone leaving the Commander to go and make arrangements.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku took one look at the elder stars latest request (orders) and resisted the urge to bang his head on the table. _Repeatedly._ Not only had the old bastards demanded he discipline Akainu about his supposed 'fraternisation with the enemy' they had told him to do it at the next general meeting.

And seeing as the old codgers listened in on said meetings, it meant that the fleet commander had no choice but to obey their command. This was going to be a _nightmare._

Heaving out a heavy sigh the old marine went to go and pre-warn the finance department about the shitstorm that was to come. It was the least he could do considering the disaster of repair costs he was undoubtedly going to have to drop on their desk as soon as the meeting finished.

Looking at the desk Garp had abandoned so he could go and 'visit his cute little grandson' Sengoku felt the urge to set something (or someone) on fire.

"Why did I ever want to be in charge again?"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Monkey D Luffy, was _not_ having a good day.

It had been almost a year since Ace had set off to sea, and things had been (relatively) quiet on Dawn island ever since. Or at least that _had_ been the case, up until this morning, when a certain marine hero had appeared yelling horrifying things like _'justice'_ and about turning Luffy into a _'fine Marine'._

The teen shuddered at the memory of it, Luffy was going to be the pirate King, there was no way in _hell_ that he was becoming a Marine!

Which is why the would be pirate king was currently sat at the top of the tallest tree in the forest, and for once in his life being very _very_ quiet. Because even _Luffy_ could tell that the gleam in his Gramps's eyes when he'd told him as such, _was not_ _a good thing._

Unfortunately the issue with being stuck in a tree, was that there was _no_ meat hidden amongst the tree tops. Which left one Monkey D Luffy very _very_ hungry.

Which was why, it only took ten minutes for Luffy to forget all about the crazy grandparent currently hunting him, and instead go looking for some food. This would prove to be a _fatal_ mistake.

Luffy had barely touched down on the ground when he felt the fist hit his head "Fist of love!" The teen clutched the already aching bruise in pain "Ow! It hurts! what the hell shitty Gramps?!" The teen was about to complain more, when he looked up and saw the old Marine's grin.

Not bothering to say any more Luffy promptly ran off as fast as he could, putting all his energy into attempting to escape with all his might!

Only to fail miserably at the hands of another fist of love. "It's training time Brat. Time to make you into a strong marine!" Luffy paled.

Miles away in the safety of her bar, Makino paused what she was doing and wondered why she could hear, what sounded like, unnecessarily loud screaming coming from the forest.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys, I'M SO SORRY THIS IS LATE! I couldn't access the documents on my computer so I couldn't edit the chapter till now, but I hope you've enjoyed the chapter regardless._

 _Anyway I cannot say how excited I am for next chapter! I've got a tonne of random stuff I want to include, but mainly I'm going to try and include_ _ **AKAINU** so let the madness begin there!_

 _Next up, answering some of the lovely reviewers so first of all_ _to **Wolfayne** hope this chapter fufilled your wishes (the Chuck Norris on top was a very convincing argument to post the chapter today XD ) and I absolutely promise to do an all marine chapter at some point but there should be some interraction next chapter and I absolutely adore your idea of a little girl giving Akainu flowers!_

 _Next to **Animegirl1279** I hope you enjoyed the small bit of Luffy, I'm probably going to try and slip some more in later but for now the poor boy is probably traumatised!_ _And you're right, none of the Whitebeards have seen Ace's tattoo yet, seeing as most of the bounty photo's were head shots and Namur just didn't notice. There is going to be a_ lot _of teasing when it's discovered._

 _Ok to **ParrllelPenSW**_ _I'm glad you liked the Spades reactions, I feel like they usually don't get enough love, so now I need to give them lots! And your reviews definitely make my day! I do feel kinda bad for Senny though, he's gonna end up traumatized at this rate XD_

 _Finally to **Katske** Im really glad you feel invested in the characters ive been trying to balance crack with humour for most of this, but I'm hoping it's come out alright! :)_

 _Anyway most importantly of all **I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS STORY HAS OVER 300 FOLLOWERS THANK YOU SO MUCH! XD** next chapter might be a little late again but I promise to do my best to get it out on time! hope you enjoyed!_


	14. Proof

Ace tried to suppress a smile as he saw the familiar and comforting blue flames, approaching rapidly on the horizon. It had been a day and a half since Ace had contacted Haruta, and the time traveller was starting to feel increasingly nervous.

His past (future?) family were fiercely loyal to their crew and no matter how he thought about it, Ace knew that _no one_ was going to be happy at learning one of their own had turned traitor.

But unfortunately the freckled teen couldn't afford to let the crew live in ignorance for another two years. Not when the cost was Thatch's life, and _especially_ not after learning about Teach's slave trading.

Letting out a small sigh, Ace turned to face his crew once more "Ok, the Whitebeard pirates aren't usually one to shoot the messenger, but we already know they're _not_ going to be happy about the information we've got. So until I've fully explained the situation, I want everyone out on deck and safely out the way."

Several seconds of pointed staring later and the Spades nodded reluctantly. Despite how much they may have _wanted_ to protect their teenaged Captain, the Spades knew that Ace was more than capable of looking after himself. And in a situation like this, a weaker crew member was much more likely to be a liability than any real help in a fight.

That didn't stop Paddy staring at his Captain, concern obvious in his eyes "Will you be ok Ace?" the pirate gave his crew a large smile "It'll be fine. I trust them." Before he could say anything else, the phoenix landed on deck with a loud thud.

Allowing Haruta to climb off his back onto the deck first, the bird transformed into the familiar face of the first division commander.

Looking at the familiar calm blue eyes of the first mate of the Whitebeard pirates, it took everything Ace had not to run over and hug the man. His last memory of the phoenix had been of devastated eyes as he reached out for Ace, still chained by seastone with holes in his chest.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts Ace shoved his conflict deep down and shot both commanders a friendly smile "Thanks for coming, now I already warned commander Haruta on the phone, but neither of you are going to like the information we've got. So I'd like for both of you to promise to hear me out to the end."

Both commanders gave a short nod, near unreadable looks on their faces. But Ace had known both men for two years in an alternate time line (even if neither commander remembered it), so he could easily read the underlying tension behind their supposedly relaxed expressions.

Gesturing for the two Whitebeard pirates to follow him, Ace lead them down to the plotting room. Sitting down the teenage pirate let out a deep breath and faced the two men he'd once called his family "There's no good way to go about this, so I'm just going to come out and say it. I have evidence that one of the Whitebeard pirates has turned traitor."

The words were barely out of his mouth when he felt the tension in the room increase a hundredfold. But despite their obvious anger on their faces, both commanders kept their word and neither moved to attack Ace (even if Haruta was very visibly restraining himself).

"I very much hope, that you have the evidence to back up such an accusation." there was deadly calm in that voice and Ace forced himself to nod.

"I do." the Spade pirate pulled out the two documents and the pictures Sabo had given him, alongside the list Shanks had compiled showing Blackbeard and Teach's corresponding trips, and handed them all over to the Whitebeards.

"One of my contacts in the revolutionary army dropped this off a few days ago. Marshall D Teach has been operating under the name Blackbeard and dealing in slaves. And has thus violated the rules of the Whitebeard pirates."

The time traveller stayed silent as the two commanders confirmed the documents with their own eyes, fury burning in their expressions. Eventually, after several minutes of tense silence Marco spoke once more "This is legitimate."

There was a resigned horror in the phoenix's voice, and a wariness in his eyes that only grew with Haruta's reluctant nod of agreement. "It is. We need to call Oyaji about this now."

Marco nodded, but despite that made no move towards his Den Den Mushi, and instead turned back to face Ace "Why did the revolutionary army come to you specifically with the documents in the first place though yoi?"

The freckled teen paused trying to decide on the best way to phrase it "They didn't have a way to contact you personally, and knew I was in the area. I was also the person to first alert them to the fact Teach was operating under the name Blackbeard."

The older pirates fixed Ace with a stare "How did you find out?" Images of Thatch flooded the teen's mind, and a somewhat bitter grin emerged on his face "He killed someone close to me." He fixed the two Whitebeard pirates with a firm stare "Be warned, he's been looking for a specific devil fruit, the yami yami no mi, and he's willing to kill to get it."

In the original timeline Thatch had found the fruit almost two years into the future by complete and utter chance. But it couldn't hurt to warn the Whitebeards now, just in case something Ace had done hastened the fruits discovery.

"I'm sorry." Ace was dragged out his thoughts by the sincere blue eyes of the first division Commander "On behalf of the Whitebeard pirates, I'm sorry we never caught on." The freckled teen shook his head "It's not your fault, he's a skilled deceiver."

After all _Ace_ had never noticed what Teach was like, and Teach was in _his_ division. And that made him Ace's responsibility, even if he was yet to meet the man in his current timeline.

"There's one more thing you need to be aware of, I know the Whitebeards have a habit of dealing with traitors themselves, but Teach is a lot stronger than you think. He's the one who gave Shanks his scars and that was back when he still had both arms, you can't underestimate him."

Ace knew that there was more than a little bit of desperation in his voice but he couldn't help it. If he'd warned his family early, only for one of them to die against Teach...

Logically the freckled teen knew that the Whitebeards currently stood a much better chance than he had in the original timeline. For one, Teach no longer had the advantage his devil fruit had presented him the first time round. For another he was probably unaware that his treachery had been discovered and would therefore be unprepared for retaliation.

Not that any of that would stop Ace worrying, especially as he wouldn't be able to go track down Teach on his own this time round. Not when Ace still had a crew to look after, and lacked the resources he'd held as a Whitebeard Commander the first time round.

A calm voice jolted Ace out of his thoughts once more, "Call Pop's, we'll make a plan after he's been warned yoi." Haruta nodded and quickly pulled the Den Den mushi out of the phoenix's bag.

Pausing, the smallest Commander turned to face Ace, with the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. "So Ace, how do you feel about talking to the strongest man in the world?"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku resisted the urge to glare at the Den Den mushi currently set up in the corner of the meeting room. The general meeting had been going so _well_ for once, and now everything was going to be ruined and Sengoku would be stuck with even _more_ bloody paperwork.

Sometimes Sengoku hated his job.

With Garp still on holiday, the monthly officer's meeting had been running more smoothly than ever, unfortunately his (sort of) freind's absence also meant there would be one less person to help restrain Akainu when the time came, which was unfortunately now.

Trying to keep a calm facade and not think of the budgeting that was going to need to be relocated after his next announcement, Sengoku let out a small cough.

"Before the meeting adjourns, I've been asked," here the old Marine sent a pointed glance to the Den Den mushi, leaving no doubt as to who _exactly_ had given him this latest order "to address some rumours that have been going around recently.."

Several eyes widened, and some of the more intelligent naval officers took the opportunity to discreetly edge away from where Akainu was sitting. Sengoku used the opportunity to send a subtle nod to Kuzan. The man's motto may have been lazy justice, but as it stood, it was _very_ hard to remain lazy when your current place of residence was destroyed by a pissed off lava man.

And while Sengoku could restrain Akainu himself, the old marine's interference would only _increase_ the damage done to Marineford. So it was up to Kuzan (a terrible decision really) to help limit the damage.

Still, if Sengoku was being forced to partake in this madness, then he was dragging _everyone else_ with him. Putting on a deadly serious face, the fleet commander met the red dog's eyes, ignoring the horrified realisation on his subordinates faces "Admiral Akainu, I would like to address your heinous act of misconduct."

The aforementioned admirals eyes widened slightly, and the temperature of the room began to drastically increase "What?" Sengoku shook his head in mock disappointment, taking far too much enjoyment from the aghast faces surrounding him.

"The upper levels have become concerned with the recent rumours about your... affair with a pirate." Watching the throbbing vein on the admiral's face with no small amount of satisfaction, Sengoku distantly noted Tsuru evacuating the lower ranking officers out of the room.

Kuzan had also started to subtly use his ice to cool the almost dangerous rise in temperature. Akainu grit his teeth, visibly trying not to lose it "Affair?"

Sengoku nodded, blank mask firmly in place "We were very disappointed by recent news of your marriage proposal to a pirate." It was easy to tell the exact moment the admiral snapped. The conference table was suddenly burned away as lava began to bubble on the Admiral's skin.

The fleet commander took a mild amount of petty satisfaction in the way the elder star's face's seemed to pale slightly. "Permission requested to eliminate the pirate of rumours Fleet Commander?"

Sengoku shook his head, mildly surprised at how well the other marine was taking the news (or at least better than expected, after all no one was _dead_ yet). "Permission denied Admiral. One of Kaidou's lot has just gone on a rampage, so I'm sending you to the new world to deal with that."

It was complete fabrication of course, but someone was _always_ on a rampage somewhere in the new world, and right now Sengoku wanted Akainu as far away from Marineford (and therefore further property damage) as possible.

Sending him after the Spade's was also a no go, seeing as the crew were almost at Sabaody where a celestial dragon had recently taken up post, and really that was a disaster just _waiting_ to happen.

(Not to mention the fact that the Spade's antics were somewhat amusing and seemed to have had the unintended side affect of giving Garp a massive headache. Which in turn gave Sengoku untold amounts of petty satisfaction)

Anger growing on his face Akainu gave a hasty salute, visibly restraining himself as he stormed out of the room, lava dripping in his wake. Waiting a few seconds the old Marine let out a small sigh and gestured for Kuzan to trail the lava man and limit the damage.

Looking at the trail of firey destruction already following behind the enraged Admiral, the fleet commander resisted the urge to go fight _everyone in the vicinity_ and instead plotted his revenge.

As the person in charge Sengoku was supposed to be seen as _sane_ , meaning he wasn't allowed to go around beating up new recruits to rid himself of his frustrations like Garp did. Sengoku had to be _subtle_ in his pettiness.

And really rumours about Akainu were just so _easily spread_ these days.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

It felt like an eternity of waiting when Ace finally heard the tell tale click that meant someone had picked up on the other end of the Den Den Mushi. "Hello Brat's, how are you both doing?" Ace grinned at hearing the familiar term of endearment, even if it wasn't directed at him.

No matter how much everything had changed it seemed some things would forever be the same.

A tiny smile appeared on Marco's face "We're fine Pop's, it's only been a day and a half." Whitebeard let out a familiar laugh that warmed Ace's heart to the very core "Let an old man worry in peace Marco! Now what have you learned that required a call?"

And just like that the small smile that had been growing on the Phoenix's face, promptly died "It's not good news Pop's." There was a slight pause before the pirate continued "Teach has turned traitor."

There was a moment of silence "You're certain?" Marco's fists clenched in anger, and Haruta shot him a concerned look before deciding to answer for him "Marco and I both verified the evidence provided Pop's. Teach has been dealing with slavers."

The expression on the other end of the line was furious, but even that fury wasn't enough to mask the obvious worry on the Emperor's face "How has he been paying these deals?"

Ace let out a small cough to remind the group he was still there "Sorry to interrupt, this is Portgas D Ace. I traced back the deals timing and found they mostly coincided with your fights, it's more than likely Teach has been using your less well known enemies as payment."

"Shouldn't we have noticed that?" The frustration it Haruta's voice was obvious, even as Ace shook his head. "I'd have been more surprised if you did. The Whitebeard pirates participate in large scale battles every day and one or two missing underlings is much more likely to be overlooked as them running away or dying in the fight."

Haruta cursed, and Marco stared back at the phone a grave look of determination on his face "Oyaji, as temporary leader of the second division I want permission to _hunt him down_."

"Permission granted Son, but I don't want you going on your own. Even if we were unaware of his actions, the only way Teach could have gotten away with it this long, would be if he slaughtered anyone who knew what he was doing. I don't want you recklessly risking your life."

The words struck something deep inside the freckled teen, Whitebeard had said something similar to Ace before he'd left in the original timeline and he _hadn't listened._ Luckily Marco was far more level headed than Ace would _ever_ be. Then again he _also_ wasn't fuelled by anger over his brother's death.

So rather than the fire Ace had spewed, the phoenix merely gave a grim nod of determination, a savage smile obvious on his face "I won't Pop's, don't worry. I have a plan. But before that, am I still allowed to do what we discussed before I left?"

The serious expression on the Emperor's face immediately turned to slyly amused. "Go for it son. You brats take care." The was a slight pause as a large grin appeared on the Captain's face "I'm looking forward to meeting you later fire brat."

Ace grinned "Right back at you old man." Ignoring Haruta's splutters and Marco's smirk, the teen focused entirely on his future father's laugh, letting it warm him to the core. He would do anything to protect that happiness.

Hanging up the phone Marco turned to face Ace, and reached out a hand "Well then. Now that I have Pop's approval, I would like to officially offer you an alliance on behalf of the Whitebeard pirates."

Ace stared at the outstretched hand, millions of thoughts rushing through his mind at once. But above the general noise were the words spoken years ago, by the same man as the one now offering his hand.

 _"Because he calls us his sons. To the rest of the world we're all just outcasts. It makes us happy. It's just a word but it makes us happy."_

It wasn't the same offer to become a Whitebeard pirate. Not yet. But it was a start. And that's all that mattered.

Grabbing the phoenix's hand Ace grinned "I'd love to."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

 _Somewhere in the grandline_

"Mummy, why is that man wearing a pink flower?" The nameless young woman, who up until that moment had peacefully been doing her shopping, stopped what she was doing and stared at the man her daughter was referring to. Only to smile sadly in recognition.

"Well Ellie, that flower is called a rose, and it's apparently a favourite of Lady Spade, the woman Admiral Akainu fell in love with. Unfortunately she's a pirate and he's a marine so the two are doomed to never be together. So the Admiral wear's that flower to honour his love for her."

The little girl, Ellie, nodded in understanding a sad look on her small face. Suddenly the girl's face lit up with excitement as she ran to the side of the road and picked up a handful of the pink flowers that grew there "Maybe if we leave more pink flowers on his ship he'll cheer up!"

Smiling at her daughter's thoughtfulness, the young mother quickly agreed to help, and before long several of the villagers had agreed to pitch in.

Several hours later Akainu returned to find his previously pristine battleship covered in pink flowers, and once more resisted the urge to go and murder someone.

Somewhere in the far off distance, Sengoku (joined by a majority of the marine finance division) cackled in vengeance, and started to plan new rumours.

 _Author's note_

 _Ok so I feel like I've had to say this a few times now, but **I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE!** Blame the lab reports I'm still procrastinating on...ahaha..ha... I really need to finish those. Anyway XD __onto the reviews!_

 _First of all to **Wolfayne** I based the last part off your idea for a little girl giving Akainu flowers so I hope You liked it!!!!_

 _ **LongPastMidnight** i'm sorry you needed something to lift your spirits, but i'm glad this helped! hope you feel better now_, _and stay tuned for more madness_!!!

 _Next to **ParrllelPenSW** glad you liked the chapter and I promise we're not done with Shanks yet! And you'll definitely get some conquerors haki soon, as well some protective Spades! If you ever do write a story i'd absolutely love to know so I could read it!_

 _To **4 is for clover** I can promise it'll be an interesting reveal when Ace and Sabo finally get round to revealing Sabo's alive *evil cackling* _

_And finally **To the guest who suggested a short story of if Teach found the yami yami no mi** ahhh I actually really love the idea i'd never considered how different the canon could be if Teach found the fruit first and therefore never needed to kill Thatch, I might try writing that as a short story once i'm done with this is gonna be fun! _

_Thank you to everyone else who reviewed and **leave a comment if there's a particular character you want in the next chapter!**_


	15. Instinct

Garp stared at the back of the paper with suspicion. One week. It had been one week since the old Marine had come back from training (torturing) his cute little grandson, and in that week there had been zero news on Ace, other than that of his supposed vanishing.

And whilst some of the less academically inclined Marines were overjoyed at the seemingly simple disappearance of the Spade pirates, Garp knew better. Ace may have been getting close to Sabaody, but without government interference there was no one currently there who would pose too much of a threat to the marine's oldest Grandson.

Now, Garp may not have been the smartest of men, but he'd always had fantastic instincts. And at current time those instincts were practically screaming at him that this was the calm before the storm. The real question now, was _who_ the storm would hit, and _how_ was his grandson involved?

Before he could ponder more on the matter, the marine was drawn out of his thoughts by the large thud of a huge pile of paperwork being placed (dumped) on his desk. Looking up in horror, the vice admiral was met with Sengoku's vindictive smile.

"Here's more catch up work Garp." The vice admiral gulped, normally he'd just ignore the paperwork or foist it off on a lower ranking officer and go out on a expedition until Sengoku calmed down.

But one look at the Fleet Commander's face told the the other marine that ditching work was _not an option_ this time. So with a reluctant sigh, and more than a little fear, Garp started his paperwork with a pout on his face. Sengoku could be a _petty bastard_ when he wanted to.

unbeknownst to Garp, he was not the only marine currently suffering under the fleet commander's well deserved vengeance.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Akainu stared at his once again pink ship, and clenched his fists desperately trying to resist the urge to burn the battleship to the ground.

Marine warships were expensive after all, and after he'd burned down the second ship he'd found covered in pink flowers, the Fleet Commander had given him specific orders not to destroy another one. _Or else_.

Letting out a shaky breath the enraged Admiral turned to face his lieutenant, "Lieutenant I believe I ordered a guard placed around the ship to stop this from happening. So why _exactly_ is my ship covered in flowers _again_?"

The aforementioned man gave a perfect marine salute, sweat dripping down his face "I'm sorry sir, the Fleet commander sent us new regulations regarding shore leave. We're no longer allowed to leave men on permanent guard duty on confirmed civilian islands."

Akainu resisted the urge to burn the man where he stood. The Admiral knew Sengoku could be a petty bastard when he wanted to, but the lava man had apparently underestimated just _how petty_ the old man could be when forced to deal with the excess of repairs paperwork Akainu had created.

Hell he wouldn't be surprised if the old bastard was the one responsible for the bloody rumours about the pink flowers in the first place.

One day he'd pay the man back. One day.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

"So what're the bets?" The infamous Spade pirates stared at their treasurer in disbelief "Dret our Captain is currently informing two members of the most powerful crew in the world, that one of their members has turned traitor and you're asking us to bet on it?"

The man gave a slight nod "Yup. The Whitebeard's have a reputation for being a decent lot and the Captain has a fuck tonne of evidence, so I doubt they're gonna shoot the messenger. Might as well bet on it."

Deuce shrugged "Fair enough, two hundred on being recruited to the Whitebeards information network." Paddy spluttered his protests while Alice let out an amused laugh "Four hundred it's a full on alliance."

Small paused in consideration before giving a decisive nod "I'll take that bet, three hundred on no alliance but Ace and Commander Haruta arranging a team up to prank the marines while they're here."

There was a slight pause before a majority of the Spades turned to face a smirking Dret, desperately trying to get their bets in. Paddy put his head in his hands, horror and resignation warring on his face.

"Why am I the only sane one here?!" Gray patted the younger man on the back sympathetically, despite the grin on his face, whilst Dusty shot him a highly offended glare "I resent the implications of that."

Paddy glared at the man "Not only were you Ace's first crew mate, I'm fairly certain you were the _only_ crew member to be formally asked to join the Spade pirates, rather than being dragged into this madness like the rest of us were."

The cowboy opened his mouth to protest, only to stop and shrug "Fair enough." Paddy was about to yell some more (in his defence it felt very therapeutic) when the door opened and Ace walked out followed by the two Whitebeard Commanders.

There was a momentary pause as the Spades tried to decipher the look on their Captain's face, before Ace let out a wide grin "We've formed a formal alliance with the Whitebeard pirates!"

The spade's took one look at their boisterous Captain and the now amused whitebeard pirates, and groaned as Alice started to cackle "I called it! Pay up suckers!"

Quartz banged his head against the mast "Why the fuck do we keep betting against her?!" Watching the female ship write giggle, Dusty let out a regretful sigh "She was so _sane_ when we found her." Paddy shot him a glare "Don't lie. None of _you_ were _ever_ sane."

Ace didn't bother to hold back a grin at his crew's antics and turned to face his new allies, smugly noting the confusion on their faces. "Well then. With Commander Haruta's information network I have no doubt you already know who everyone here is, but for courtesies sake I'll do a quick introduction anyway."

"Commander's, these are Dusty, Deuce, Small, Quartz, Alice, Gray, Kalin, Dret, Liam, Paddy, Doc and Green also known as the Spade pirates. Spades, this is the Commander Marco and Commander Haruta of the Whitebeard pirates. We're entering an alliance with them to get rid of Teach."

The Spades stopped, bloodthirsty grins appearing on their faces. They may not have met the traitor in person yet, but every new piece of evidence they had uncovered about Teach had fuelled their hatred of the man.

And while the Spades may not have been strong enough to participate in the actual fight, they could sure as hell help with plotting.

Dusty tipped his hat "What's the plan Captain?" Ace motioned to the Whitebeard pirates and _grinned_.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco and Haruta stared at each other in something akin to worry and amusement.

Teach had been a family member for years and as such was intimately familiar with both Marco and Haruta's particular brands of strategy. Which is why the best solution would be to use Ace's plan to entrap the traitor.

Unfortunately neither commander had been quite so prepared for the level of madness the teen would propose.

And while the plan to take down Teach was quite simplistic on it's own, the supplies required for some of the more unnecessary aspects of the plan would require some very... specific thievery.

This was going to be interesting.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp stared at the photo of the orange Spade and the list attached to it in utter confusion.

The marine's oldest grandson had done a whole number of _strange_ things over the course of the last eight months since setting off to sea, but even then, a _majority_ of his actions had at least seemed to have _some_ sort of purpose.

Which is why the marine felt so incredibly confused by the list now in front of him. What the fuck was Ace up to now? And why on earth did it require him to steal three mini submarines of all things?!

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks stared at the message he had just received in utter bewilderment. Blinking in confusion the Emperor called his first mate "Benn! Come read this letter for me and tell me if it really says what I think it does, or if the hangover has made me imagine all this!"

The first mate of the red force let out a small snort from where he had been reading peacefully and walked over to his Captain. Stealing the letter, Benn's eyes widened in shock as he read through it "For the first time ever it's not the hangover. The kid must be going mad."

Shanks laughed "He's a D on both sides of the family, the kid was always gonna be a little mad. Besides all the best people are." Benn let out a small sigh despite the small smile on his face "Can't argue with that. So what're your orders Captain?"

A shark toothed smile emerged on the Emperor's face "Tell the men to set sail. We have a meeting to attend." Benn grinned, not bothering to hide the anticipation in his eyes "Aye aye Captain."

And so, the world started to move once more.


	16. Fight

Marshall D Teach was _not_ having a good day. After travelling damn near from one end of the grand line to the other, to chase down _yet another_ lead on the yami yami no mi, the pirate had once more returned disappointed.

And now, instead of being allowed to rest for a few days, and finally eat some of his favourite cherry pie, the pirate was being forced to divert his course even further.

The cause for his pointless diversion, was because he was being forced to help the first division Commander check on an island his so called 'family' was considering putting under there protection. Despite the fact that the island had _no_ tactical advantage _whatsoever_ and was in fact, a tiny spec of land in the middle of nowhere, with no human inhabitants.

Sometimes Teach _couldn't stand_ the carefree nature of the crew he had reluctantly joined to exploit their resources.

Repressing the urge to let out a heavy sigh, the large man reluctantly beached his boat in a small bay, and forced himself to don a friendly smile. It wouldn't do to be seen as anything other than the friendly unambitious family member he still pretended to be.

Successfully concealing the last of his anger, the large pirate let a cheerful tune fill the air as he began to walk up the small sandy hill nearby, and towards a large clearing near the shore.

Looking around the island as he walked, the bearded pirate was surprised to see a small nondescript boat docked in a small cove previously hidden out of his line of sight.

Now, if Teach had been meeting literally any family member _other_ than Marco the presence of the small boat might not have been a surprise.

But this was the man known as the _phoenix_. And usually it was somewhat traditional that if the first mate of the Whitebeard pirates was meeting a family member, he'd fly over in his phoenix form, before hitching a ride back with whichever pirate he'd gone to meet.

Making the presence of a boat (especially one _without_ Whitebeard's insignia proudly displayed) particularly strange. Just as Teach was about to voice his suspicions, a calm voice echoed out from across the clearing. "If you're looking for Marco I'm afraid he's not here."

Keeping a calm expression to hide his surprise, the Whitebeard pirate slowly turned to meet the grinning face of the man he now recognised as the Ace of Spades.

Seeing the older pirate's eyes on him, the young Captain tipped his hat in a mockery of politeness. One that did absolutely _nothing_ to distract from the animalistic smirk on his face.

"You're Marshall D Teach right? Member of the second division of the Whitebeard pirates?" The older man gave a friendly smile, barely managing to conceal his rage at being called out to this deserted island for what he was beginning to suspect, might be nothing more than a prank.

Unfortunately keeping character was far more important than killing an uppity rookie (and potentially leaving witnesses if the brat's crew was nearby) so Teach forced out an amused sounding laugh. "Zehahaha that I am, can I ask what exactly the infamous Spade Pirates want with me?"

The freckled teen gave a savage grin "We want you dead Teach. Or should I call you Blackbeard?"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace couldn't quite help but savour the enraged look of shock that had appeared on his old subordinates face. Teach had taken every possible precaution in order to ensure his identity remained a secret.

And having an unaffiliated rookie reveal it was probably the man's worst nightmare.

Unfortunately it didn't take too long for Teach to recover "I don't know what you're talking about." The teenaged Captain felt the smirk die on his lips "Drop the bullshit Teach. I know who you are, there's no one here worth pretending for."

The larger pirate paused for a minute in consideration before letting his friendly facade drop, and allowing a twisted mockery of a smile to appear in it's place.

"Ok then Brat. Here's how this is going to work. I don't know who you really are, nor do I know how you got this information, but one thing I do know is that I am going to kill you. You and everyone else I even remotely suspect of knowing my identity. And when I'm done I'm going to tell the world that you, like every other cocky rookie on the sea, tried to fight me as a way to challenge Whitebeard."

Ace scowled "It won't work. No one's gonna believe I ignored the chance to pick a fight with one of Whitebeard's hungover, and therefore disadvantaged commanders, only to turn around and attack a no name from the second division to try and provoke a fight."

Teach smirked "They'll believe it. After all I'm _family_ , and when I go back to the Moby dick, I'll tell them all about how I'd underestimated you. How you lead the entirety of the Spades to ambush me and that it was your life or mine. And the fools will clap me on the back and say they're glad I'm safe."

Ace's fists clenched in utter _hatred_ "You don't deserve to call them family." A sharp silence filled the space between the two men, and then finally Ace attacked.

It wasn't the same as last time.

There was no fire, no fists, and no insults.

This time, there was only the sheer manifestation of willpower. As the pirate known as Portgas D Ace looked at the man he'd once called his brother, and willed him to **_FALL_**.

It was only for a moment.

Blackbeard was still a new world pirate after all, and Ace was still relatively new to conqueror's haki at that. And as such it was only enough to disorient the older pirate for a moment.

But a moment was all Ace needed.

Flames coating his hands the teen attacked.

Aiming a fiery punch directly at the older pirate's heart, Ace couldn't help but scowl as his hand was barely diverted away from it's target by a haki coated fist.

Not wasting the momentum he had already accumulated, the teen didn't hesitate to pick a new target and push forwards, diverting his fist into Teach's side.

Ignoring the smell of burnt flesh, and the snarl of pain, the logia arched his leg up in a high kick, taking advantage of the older pirate's instinctive dodge to get some distance from the man, promptly sacrificing his shirt in the process.

Safely out of range once more Ace took the chance to shoot several balls of fire at his target, barely managing to dodge out the way of haki covered fists as Blackbeard nimbly weaved through his shots attempting to close the distance once more.

After several minutes of rough brawling the two men separated once again, each taking the momentary reprise to assess their opponent's condition.

Looking across the clearing, Ace could see Teach sprouting several nasty burns all over his body as well as more than a few bruises, while Ace himself suffered a few more serious cuts and bruises of his own.

Ace was under no illusions that if Blackbeard got a hold on him with his haki then he was probably dead. After all, this was the man who'd duelled Shanks to a standstill and he would not go down easy, even with all of Ace's tricks.

For now, his best bet would be to keep out of reach until he could find the right timing to end the fight. As it was he'd only get one shot.

"Not bad brat." Teach's voice cut through the silence like a knife. "Look kid, I like you so I'm gonna give you an offer. Join me and I'll let you live! The haki and devil fruit was certainly a surprise but I've survived tougher than you, and if you don't agree I'll have no choice but to kill you."

The teen's lips twisted into a savage snarl, as his eyes narrowed in hatred "I'll never join you. I'll make Pop's the king, until Luffy's strong enough to claim the title himself."

Teach scowled, slight confusion in his eyes "Pop's? I don't know why you're so loyal to the old geezer or who Luffy is, but I suppose it doesn't matter anymore, if you won't join me then you're no use to me alive anyway."

The two men stared at each other once more, each unwilling to rush in and make the first move. However in the end Teach's patience ran out first and the older pirate rushed forward determined to end the situation for good.

Waiting until the older pirate was too close to dodge Ace threw out his hands allowing a spiral of burning flames to surround him **"Dai Enkei**

Biting back curses Teach brushed aside the flames and continued to rush forwards, only to stop in his tracks as crimson fire suddenly surged upwards creating a miniature sun in the teen's hand.

Staring at the savage grin on the other D's face, Marshall D Teach let out a scream of rage and rushed forwards in a desperate attempt to reach the teen before he released his attack. Unfortunately for him it was already too late.

 **"ENTEI."**

There was a momentary pause before the world was set aflame.

Protected by his powers Ace stared blankly into the raging inferno, listening to the pained screams of the man who had once doomed him to die. Moments passed and Ace continued staring into the flames before finally letting out a small smile "That was for Thatch you bastard."

The screams quietened and for a moment the logia thought it was over, when all of a sudden a blackened hand reached through the fire desperately trying to grasp the teen.

Recoiling backwards just in time, the freckled man stared at the blackened husk of Teach's right hand, satisfaction heavy in his mind despite his surprise at Teach's survival. As much as he hated to admit it, Ace could acknowledge that Blackbeard was as strong as hell.

"You little bastard. I'll gut you for this."

Ace grinned, slowly shaking his head. "You won't get the chance to. Despite how much I'd love to be the one to kill you, I made a deal. If I hadn't dealt with you after this I'd step aside. After all you're still technically a Whitebeard pirate, so I suppose it's only fair that they'll be the ones to end you."

Teach paled as he realised that in his pain he'd missed a familiar presence approaching, one which was currently landing only metres behind him.

Ace smiled as Marco gently touched down on the ground, before shooting a triumphant smirk at Teach "Meaning you're no longer my problem to deal with. Your _hi_ _s._ " Not even bothering to turn around, Blackbeard dived to the side, just in time to avoid the taloned foot aimed at where his head had been mere moments ago.

Not looking all too bothered that his attack had failed Marco turned and stared into the eyes of the man he had once called his brother. "Marshall D Teach. For breaking the rules of the Whitebeard pirates and dealing in slaves I, as your divisions temporary division Commander, hearby sentence you to death. Any last words?"

In another world, one where Teach had been at full strength, or still in possession on the yami yami no mi, then things might have been different. But they weren't.

As such what happened next, seemed to occur almost as if in slow motion.

Knowing he was outmatched in his current state, Teach scrambled to retreat. Only for a taloned foot to rip through his back and tear out his heart.

And so, with blood still dripping on the ground, the man known as Marshall D Teach slumped to the floor dead. **_Never to hurt Ace's family again._**

And so for the first time since he had reawakened in the past, Ace let down his guard, let go of all his worries and laughed.

unnoticed by the teen, the first division commander of the Whitebeard pirates watched the youth from several steps away, suspicion and resolve warring on his face.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks grinned from his seat in the mini submarine, as he saw Teach fall to the ground dead.

When the kid had first sent him a letter selling seat's to the fight with Teach, the Emperor had thought the kid was mad. Heck he still thought the kid was mad, but at least he hadn't been stupid enough to take Teach on with no backup.

Still despite his worry, Shanks really didn't have anything better to do today and the fight had been entertaining to say the least.

Ace's haki was coming along nicely, and seeing Whitebeard's first mate in action was always interesting. Marco could be a really _vicious_ turkey when he wanted to.

Unfortunately there was however a slight _issue_ with being trapped with Benn and the other Spades inside a mini submarine while the fight went on. Said issue came in the form of a petite blond ship wright, who was currently staring at the Emperor with evil glee in her eyes.

"Well then mister Red Emperor in accordance with our bet you will personally participate in one Spade prank of our choosing." looking at the mischievous smiles of the Spades surrounding him, Shanks shot a pleading look at his first mate "Beeennnnnn."

Unfortunately for the infamous pirate, his treacherous first mate merely grinned "Have fun Captain." Letting out a loud groan, Shank's shot his second in command a fearsome scowl (it **_wasn't_** a pout, Shanks was fearsome pirate, fearsome pirates didn't pout. Shut up Benn).

And with that one of the most feared pirates on the sea resigned himself to his inevitable humiliation. Why the hell had he thought it would be a good idea to bet with one of Ace's equally insane crew members?!

(Shanks pointedly ignored the loud exclamation of "it's so funny when she's not betting against us" going on behind him)

Resisting the urge to let out another groan the red haired pirate turned to face the Spades with a grin on his face. "Moving on," (the emperor chose to ignore Benn's snort of amusement at the blatant change in topic) "I believe we should go and rejoin your Captain. Teach is dead and I believe that deserves a celebration!"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

A party filled with a mixture of spade, whitebeard, and red haired pirates was never going to be a quiet affair. As such it wasn't even an hour into the celebration before pranks were being played and bets made. (the marines were going to wake up to some very interesting surprises tomorrow)

This also meant, it took several hours for Marco to find a good time to approach the teenaged Captain of the Spade pirates.

"Ace." The freckled teen's face lit up with a smile "Hey Marco! What's up?" the phoenix couldn't help a small smile at the teen's enthusiasm, only for the smile to fade when he remembered why he was there.

"Take a walk with me." Not leaving the teen room to disagree, the pirate walked off into the nearby forest, not stopping until he'd reached well away from where the party goers were still having fun.

Not bothering to turn and face the teen (though still very much aware of his presence) the Phoenix began to speak. "You're a mystery Portgas D Ace, you came out of nowhere. Are far too skilled to be as unknown as you were at the beginning of your journey. And know _far_ _too much_ about my family."

The first division commander turned to face the teen, who seemed to be frozen in place, and continued to speak. "One thing that I don't tend to advertise about being a mythical zoan is that it enhances my senses even in human form, meaning I have both excellent sight and hearing."

"So tell me Ace, why are you loyal to Pop's despite only having one phone call with him? Why do you have a phoenix tattoo with similar markings to my zoan form on your back? And most importantly of all, why was your setting Teach on fire apparently revenge for my still very much alive brother, Thatch?"

 _Author's note_

 _Ok so first of all **I am so sorry this is so late!** some of you probably noticed there was no author's note on my last chapter, the reason for that being that this chapter was originally planned to be released the next day alongside my usual note._

 _Unfortunately due to several coursework pieces being dumped on my lap the same day I didn't have a chance to finish the chapter, which is why its so late._

 _Ok on a more positive note **OMG THIS STORY HAS OVER 600 FOLLOWERS?!** **WHAT THE HELL, THANK YOU SO MUCH!**_

 _Thank you so much to everyone who left a review they were so amazing to read and they really motivated me to try and find time between coursework to finish the chapter!_ _I won't do any special mentions of reviews this time but I promise to do so next time._

 _(though to the **RougeisLadySpade** who suggested the conspiracy about Ace pretending to be his non-existent sister pretending to be his mum __I would like to say I adore your idea, and i hope you won't mind if I use elements of it in a later chapter?)_

 ** _Ok so last mention is that one of the readers, VisitorNo.18 has written some scenarios about this story in this universe that I'd recommend checking out!_ _it's called FANFICS for this is gonna be fun AU._** _:D_


	17. Confessions

Ace stared at the big brother of the Whitebeard pirates, one of his best friend's in another timeline, and promptly tried to think of _any_ possible excuse he could use to bullshit his way out of answering Marco's questions.

And came up with nothing.

As the oldest sibling of hundreds of pirates, as well as a master of observation haki, there was very little that got past the first division commander. And even whilst Ace had been at his most guarded in the original timeline, Marco had always been _exceptionally_ good at picking up on his bullshit.

Letting out a loud groan of annoyance, the teen sat down cross legged on the ground, enjoying the look of confusion on his old friend's face before finally giving a small sigh and resigning himself to the fact that he was going to have to tell the truth.

"This was so not how I wanted this conversation to go. Ok, fuck, so I promise I have an explanation, but before I say anything you might want to call up Pops. He's probably going to want to hear this too, and I don't want to have to explain it twice." The phoenix looked slightly suspicious at Ace's slip of the tongue but took out his mini Den Den Mushi all the same.

Watching Marco dial up a familiar number, the two men waited in silence as a sudden click rang out "Marco? Is something wrong son?" The phoenix let out a soft smile "Nothing much Oyaji, but Ace is willing to tell us where he's got all his information about the crew from."

The expression on the Den Den Mushi sharpened with interest "Go on then brat." Ace couldn't help but smile at the clear amusement in his (hopefully) future father's voice.

"What I'm going to say is going to sound crazy, even by grand line standard, so before I start I'd like you both to promise you'll hear me out to the end before judging me about it." There was a momentary pause before Marco nodded and Whitebeard gave an affirming hum.

"Ok then. So I guess I should try and start from beginning. Less than a year ago I died. Or to be more accurate, I was killed by Akainu." Ace paused to give a slightly helpless smile to his audience. Based on their facial expressions whatever explanation they had been expecting, this _clearly_ wasn't it.

(it was also worth mentioning that the shocked expression on Marco's face was slightly hilarious regardless of the seriousness of the conversation.)

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ace forced himself to continue "Anyway as I was saying I died. So you can probably imagine my surprise when I suddenly woke up four years in the past with a ruined tattoo I shouldn't have gotten yet and logia powers from a fruit I shouldn't have eaten yet."

"It sounds crazy I know but hear me out. So in the original timeline I spent this last year and the next half a year storming through the new world with the rest of the spades until I eventually challenged Jinbei to a fight in an attempt to challenge your crew. To make a long story short despite me attempting to defeat you, you recruited me and the other spades and I eventually became second division commander."

Ace felt a soft smile overtake his face as he got temporarily lost in reminiscing of happy days on the Moby Dick. That smile promptly died as the teen forced himself to tell the next part of the story "And then about three years later, Thatch found the yami yami no mi on a raid, and Teach killed him for it."

A dark silence overtook the group and Ace saw a flash of quiet realisation cross Marco's face. Deciding it was best to get the story over and done with the teen hurried to continue.

"As Teach's division commander I went to bring him in, against your orders. And I... I lost. His devil fruit nullified mine and I wasn't strong enough. So he handed me over to the world government to execute in exchange for a warlord position."

Marco stared at him, lazy eyes narrowed in slight suspicion "Even if you were second division commander they shouldn't have bothered to execute a pirate already in custody. Not when you could still be used for information purposes, not even to mention that a living pirate in chains serves as a far better show of the world governments supposed might."

Ace let out a choked laugh "You're right. But they had additional reasons to want me dead, two in particular. Number one, they knew you'd come for me." The freckled teen felt his lips twist into a ruethfull smile.

Silence reigned throughout the clearing as Marco stared at the teen, protective rage burning bright in his eyes at the thought of someone trying to hurt his family. Ace smiled but his tone remained sorrowful as he continued on.

"And come for me you did, with fire and fury and the full force of the entire family." Ace paused feeling the memories begin to overwhelm him, "Just as Sengoku had planned." Marco let out a string of curses as the Den Den Mushi's eyes narrowed in sorrow.

"What happened then son?" Ace felt a tears streaming down his face at the gentle address " I think you died Oyaji. You died protecting me and then I died anyway protecting my little brother from my own dumbass mistakes. I'm so, so sorry Oyaji, it was all my fault."

Strong arms wrapped around the freckled teen, and Ace let himself sink back into the Phoenix's warm grasp, still letting out choked sobs. "I'm sorry Pop's. I'm so sorry I put the family in danger because I didn't listen to you."

The expression on the Den Den Mushi turned to a sad smile "It's not your fault brat. And if you really were my son in your original timeline then I hope you know I would have been glad to make the sacrifice. I'm not going to last forever, and so I'm glad I went out trying to protect the family. I'm sorry I failed you son."

Ace let out a small smile "You didn't fail me oyaji. You were a great father." Whitebeard's smile widened "Good to hear it brat." Marco gave the teen one last reassuring squeeze before releasing him "You said there were two reasons the marines wanted to execute you, what was the second reason yoi?"

Ace let out a slightly bitter smile "Portgas is actually my mother's maiden name, and the name I chose to carry. The name I was born with is Gol D Ace. I don't need to explain to you two of all people why that ensured my execution."

Marco's arm wound its way around Ace's shoulders once more, as the expression Den Den Mushi trembled in anger. "Those bastard's." Ace couldn't help the surge of warmth upon hearing his chosen father's protective anger.

The teen gave a helpless smile "I won't disagree with you there. Anyway to make a long story short, I died. And when I woke up again it four years in the past just after I had set off to sea. So I regathered the Spades, tried to find evidence of Teach and got in contact with you which lead me to here I suppose."

There was a moment of silence as the elder pirates digested Ace's words before eventually Marco spoke up once again "Do the rest of the Spades know?" The freckled teen shook his head.

"No. At the start I didn't want to frighten them off before they felt they could trust me. There was also the matter of making sure that no information accidentally got out to Teach before we had a plan to deal with him. If any of the Spades asked me for the details now I'd happily tell them the truth, but I don't think they need to be burdened with what will never come to pass."

The freckled teen proceeded let out a slightly sheepish smile "Well that and the fact that Dret would murder me for fixing almost every single bet I've participated in over the last year..." Ace grinned at the small burst of shocked laughter from the normally stoic first division commander.

"Can't say I blame you yoi. The real question is what you plan to do now?" The Den Den Mushi let out a sharp smile "Excellent point Son. Ace I would like to formally offer you and the Spades a place with the Whitebeard pirates."

The freckled teen felt a large grin grow on his face "I would love to Oyaji. But I need to discuss with my crew first, last time we sort of got... kidnapped into it after I tried to kill you?" Marco let out a loud sigh as he cradled his head in his hand "Another one Oyaji, really?! You promised not to do that anymore."

Basking in the warmth of his chosen father's amused chuckle Ace grinned "I'll discuss with the Spades tomorrow and then give you a call then Oyaji!" The Den Den Mushi reflected a warm grin "Good idea son I'll be waiting for you call."

The small click indicated that the two men were alone once more, Marco turned to Ace a confused expression clearly visible "Wait a second, if you were a division commander in the future you should've already known the ship's contact number, why did you risk stealing Squardo's Den Den?"

A wicked smirk lit up the Captain's face "Partially because I didn't want to explain to you how I got the number, but mostly because I wanted an excuse to get back at him."

The Phoenix gave him a gently questioning look and Ace let out a small sigh "He betrayed Oyaji in the original timeline, and I mean don't get me wrong he was manipulated into it and Oyaji forgave him. But it doesn't excuse what he did so I figured it wouldn't hurt to be slightly petty."

Marco sighed but nodded in acceptance "Fair enough, yoi." Ace gave his old (new?) friend a small smile "Now that, that's all sorted are we ok to go back to the party? Shanks owes the Spades a prank and if I ask him now he's _far_ less likely to object to my idea than when he's completely sober."

An evil grin highlighted the first division Commander's face "I've got a vision dial in my bag, I'll let you borrow it on the condition that you promise to send any embarrassing videos of Shanks you happen to take."

Ace grinned "Deal. But would you be willing to challenge Shanks to a drinking competition first? The drunker he is the more I can get away with."

Matco gave an easy nod, a smug smirk growing across his face "With pleasure." Somewhere nearby Shanks shivered in apprehension.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku hated his life. He hated his life _so bloody much._

Logically the marine had known that the spades must have had a specific use in mind for the three mini submarines that they had so recently... _acquired..._ from the Marines.

However that logic did absolutely _nothing_ to soften the blow of the monstrosity currently shown in the report before him.

A giant robot.

The spades had taken three _state of the art_ mini submarines and _somehow_ melded them together into this fully functioning metal monstrosity. They had then proceeded to spray paint the name 'Bartholomew the third, destoyer of worlds' on the side.

Sengoku wanted to cry.

The fact that Lady spade and an unknown conspirator had promptly proceeded to pilot the contraption into a marine supply base, before stealing every last bottle of sake inside, only increased the Marine's urge to go and murder someone.

The _only_ positive thing to come out of the day was the new intelligence report that was supposed to be arriving within the next twenty minutes which apparently vital information about Lady Spade's identity.

Unfortunately, even the promise of information was doing nothing to cut through Sengoku's rage. However before the fleet commander could dwell on it any further a loud ring of laughter echoed from the floor below.

A slow smirk made it's way onto the Marine's face upon hearing the easily identifiable laugh. Garp had been annoying Sengoku recently and the fleet commander _really_ needed to let off some steam.

With an evil smile the Higher ranked Marine left to go and find the laughing vice admiral.

Garp would survive the encounter. Probably.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks woke up with a pounding headache, a large gap in his memories and an inexplicable feeling of deep _deep_ regret.

After wasting a minute of trying and failing to figure out what the hell he'd done last night and how the hell he'd ended up on the spade's ship (or what he _thought_ was the Spade's ship), the red haired man decided his best bet of figuring out what had happened was probably to try and find Benn.

Grumbling good naturedly the infamous pirate stumbled out onto the deck where he spotted Ace and Benn huddling together. "Hey Kiddo, hey Benn. Wild party last night! Did I do anything I'm going to horribly regret?"

The Red Emporer glanced down to meet the freckled teen's gaze and instantly recoiled at the evil grin situated on the younger captain's face.

"Benn. What did I do and why is Ace grinning like that?" The first mate of the red haired pirates let out an amused snort whilst the teen's shark toothed grin transformed into an innocent smile "Nothings going on Shanks. We were just saying about how we wanted to come and congratulate you on your new wanted poster."

The red haired man froze in unease, once you reached Emporer level there were _incredibly_ few things you could do that would warrant a change in bounty poster.

The only reason a change might occur would be if your previous picture was no longer a valid way of identifying you, or if you had done something so _monumentally crazy_ that the reward money needed increasing.

The large gap in Shanks's memory suddenly became much _much_ more concerning. Especially when paired with the knowledge that he'd owed the Spades a prank (something drunk him would have had absolutely no problem with allowing to be cashed in regardless of consequences).

The twin expressions of mischievous glee on Ace and Benn's face was also doing very little to reassure the Emporer. Ace pulled out a sheet of paper and presented it to the Emporer "Here you go Shanks!"

Ignoring his sense of dread Shanks grasped the piece of paper and looked down only to shake his head in mute denial "Nooooooooooo Benn why did you let me do this?!?!?!?!?"

The first mate of the Red haired pirates let out an amused smirk "Don't know what you're talking about Captain. When I told you it was a bad idea yesterday you specifically said, and I quote 'Benn don't be such a buzzkill. I'm the captain I can do what I want!' so I assumed I shouldn't interfere."

Shanks stared at the bounty poster in horror "You know you should ignore me when I'm drunk!!! How the hell did they convince me to crossdress and help destroy a Marine base with a giant robot?!?!?"

Benn continued to smirk "With almost concerning ease Captain." Ace grinned up at the older Captain "The robots name is Bartholomew the third destroyer of worlds. Seeing as you named it you should refer to it properly!" Shanks stared at Benn in horror once more whilst Ace continued to talk.

"But anyway welcome to the Spade pirates Queen of hearts!" Shanks held his head in his hands "I'm too hungover for this. I blame that stupid turkey Marco."

Ace covered his laugh with a cough, deciding it was probably best not to mention the excess of blackmail material Marco had acquired over the course of the night "It gets better. Turn the page." Apprehension clearly written across his face the older Captain turned the page only to burst out into hysterical laughter.

"Oh god, you've definitely outdone yourself kid. How the hell did anyone believe this?!???" A sheepish smile appeared on the teen's face "That's the thing. The Marines actually came up with this one on their own, It's not even my fault this time."

Shanks stared at the paper in disbelief "You're joking right?" Ace shook his head and Shanks couldn't help but wonder how the hell the Marines had even gotten this far.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp tried to control his laughter between pained winces. Honestly old Senny really needed to relax instead of taking things out on his poor elderly subordinates in the guise of training (No Garp absolutely did not see the karmic justice in this situation no matter how many amused subordinates pointed it out to him).

Staring at the paper Garp was torn between hysterical relief and amusement, and _utter horror_ at the Marine's supposed intelligence service.

That the papers had accused Lady Spade of being Portgas D Rouge was one matter. Ace had enough of his mothers features that it was a reasonable conclusion to draw that they were one and the same. The matter of aging, and even the sudden change of appearance from earlier wanted posters could easily be excused by the use of a devil fruit.

But as Garp stared down at the picture of Lady Spade's supposed younger sister (or Ace's new older sibling) the vice Admiral couldn't help but feel that every insult he'd heard about the Marines intelligence might actually be deserved.

The newest member of the Spade pirates. The Queen of hearts, Portgas D Shanksessa.

The fact that the woman in question was clearly the red haired pirate miscreant in a wig seemed to have escaped the Marine's notice entirely. Shanks hadn't even bothered to change his name that much damn him!!!!!

Not only that but the emporer still had the same scars in his female disguise, he even had an obviously fake arm!!? How the hell had _none_ of the Marines caught onto this obvious deception?!?!? _Garp_ had caught on for heavens sake, and even the old Marine could admit to himself that wasn't the smartest cookie in the jar.

On a brighter note Garp could at least acknowledge that his grandsons various deceptions had gone so far in screwing over his _actual_ family tree that his true heritage was hidden almost without a doubt.

Garp let out a heavy sigh, the real question was what had driven Shanks to meet up with his eldest grandson in the first place. Last intelligence had known, the red haired menace had been at the other end of the grandline.

Pairing that with apparent sightings of the Whitebeard pirates, and Garp was left to wonder what the hell was happening with his grandson?????

 _Authors note_

 _Hi guys! I would like to start this note by saying **THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE!!!!!** I've actually spent pretty much my entire summer at a camp America summer camp so its only recently I've had the time and internet access to finish this chapter so I'm really sorry it took so long and thank you all so much for the encouraging messages as well the support and I hope you found the wait worth it. Next, **OMG THIS STORY HAS OVER 900 FOLLOWERS, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN THANK YOU SO MUCH?!?!!????**_

 _I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter and there should be a new one out by next week!_


	18. Decisions

There were times, Ace reflected, that he thought he'd maybe rubbed off on the other Spades a little bit _too_ much.

The fact that they had placed the bounty poster for Portgas D Shanksessa on some sort of alter covered in flowers whilst they danced around it chanting _certainly_ supported the theory.

Ace was pretty positive that at least _some_ of his crew had been sane before he got to them, but looking at the scene in front of him the young Captain was having a very hard time convincing himself of the fact. Deciding it was in his best interests not to question the strange ritual the freckled teen let out a piercing whistle.

"Spade meeting! Everyone get to the plotting room now, last one there gets extra training." The freckled teen took satisfaction in the way his crew froze up in utter horror before all at once starting to sprint towards the meeting room.

Watching the last of his crew leave Ace let out a small chuckle and decided to leave the alter set up for now. Taking a slow stroll towards the plotting room, Ace opened the door and took a moment to slowly survey his crew.

Noticing the look of resigned terror on Small's face the freckled teen let out a small snort "Extra training tonight Small!" The chef let out a loud groan much to the other Spades relieved amusement.

Smiling at his crew in fond exasperation the freckled teen gave a loud clap "Ok as much as I find this funny, I didn't actually call you all here to torment you with extra training. The Whitebeard pirates have given us an offer and I want to hear your opinions before I decide what we're doing."

The Spades nodded each giving their Captain their full attention. Deciding not to waste time, Ace got straight to the point "The Whitebeard pirates have offered all of us a place in their crew."

Before any of his crew had the chance to start offering their opions Ace cut them off with a piercing whistle "Ok, ok everyone shut up for now. Here's how this is gonna go, I'm going to give you the full facts of the situation, and after that's doneyou can ask me any questions you might have. I'm then going to give you all two hours to think it over and then we'll have a vote on our decision, in the case of a tiebreaker, my votes the decider. Everyone understand?"

The Spades nodded and Ace gave a small smile "Excellent. So as it stands now we're almost at Saboady and while I hate to say it, we're not strong enough to survive what comes after. We're good but we're not at New world level yet."

Ace made sure to meet the eyes of his crew, doing everything in his power to show them how utterly serious he was "The New world is currently under the control of the four Emporer's and while we're in the good graces of two of them that's not going to be enough if we want to stay independent. Because whilst Shanks and Whitebeard may be understanding of our wishes to remain unaffiliated Big Mom and Kaidou will be anything but, and they will employ a join or die policy. Meaning if we want to remain completely independent we'd need to be strong enough to survive refusing them. This means we'd have to stop our journey temporarily and train until we're strong enough to handle that."

"On the other hand if we want to join the Whitebeards then we have two options. Option one is we join the main crew, this would mean leaving the Card Deck on an allied island and relocating to the moby dick, this would mean total protection from the other Emperors as well as the opportunity to stay together whilst having a safe place to train, and access to the Whitebeard's resources. This also means losing our independence as Spades and having to answer to the division commanders and Whitebeard above all."

"The final option would be joining the Whitebeard's as allies. This means we'd stay on our ship and we'd be given the opportunity to trail the Moby Dick and train with the Whitebeard's until we're a bit stronger and then we could mostly go and do our own thing. We would still have to answer to Whitebeard though and if he calls to assemble, we would be obligated to answer that call. This would also mean that Kaidou and Big Mom would recognise us as Whitebeard's allies so would be less likely to employ more violent techniques to keep the balance but we'd still be at significant risk of a fight if we venture anywhere near their territory. So essentially we'd have less protection but more freedom."

Ace looked around at his crew "Any questions?" Alice raised her hand "I've got a question Captain." The Captain nodded "Go ahead." Alice bit her lip looking seemingly reluctant to ask her question "You said if we joined the Whitebeard's we would work under the commanders same as the rest of the crew, does that mean there's a chance we wouldn't be in the same division?"

Ace forced himself to give the question the consideration it deserved, last time the Spades had all been kept together but that was mainly because there had been open space in the second division at the time. There was no telling if any of Ace's actions had affected that to the point where the Spades might be put in seperate divisions.

"It's possible. The Whitebeard pirates do try to keep crews together but at the same time they like grouping specialed skill sets which might mean splitting our crew between divisions. Space availability is also a large deciding factor on where we might be placed. However even in different divisions we'd all still be in regular contact."

Alice gave a firm nod, decision clear on her face "Thank you Captain." The freckled teen gave her a quick smile "Any other questions?" The Spades shook their heads "Excellent. Ok you have two hours and Shanks should be leaving in ten minutes if anyone wants to join me in seeing them off. If not I'll see you all back here in two hours."

Giving his crew one last reassuring smile the teen walked out leaving them to think it over. As much as the possibility of not being affiliated with the Whitebeard pirates saddened him Ace knew that he'd keep his friendship with the other crew regardless.

Because more important than repeating his past was making sure this time his crew got a choice. Because while he'd grown to love the crew that had saved him from himself, Ace could still acknowledge that by forcibly kidnapping him, the Whitebeard pirates (whilst saving him) had not left many choices for his crew even if they had eventually grown to love the crew just as much as Ace did.

So this time he would let them choose and he would honour that choice. After all whatever the outcome was Ace would still live his life with no regrets.

The freckled teen couldn't help but let a small grin slip onto his face, he had to say goodbye to Shanks but after that there would still be a decent amount of time before the limit he gave his crew was up.

Just enough time to write a letter and make a phone call. The grin on Ace's face widened, it had been a while since the Spades had started any rumors and the young Captain knew another pirate who would be _very_ interested in helping him with that.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ignoring the worried looks from his crew Buggy let out another helpless giggle at the letter in front of him. The pirate had always liked Rouge, and her son had grown up to be incredibly entertaining. As it stands Buggy would have happily helped the boy in his schemes for free, but the embarrassing photos of Shanks the kid had thrown in certainly sweetened the deal.

Grinning evily the clown rubbed his hands together, cackling. Oh this was going to be hilarious, Shanks wasn't going to know what hit him.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Marco grinned at the Spades as they approached him, his Den Den Mushi already in hand "You ready to give Pop's your decision brat?" Ace nodded, a shit eating grin clear on his face. "Sure thing _Old man_." The Phoenix rolled his eyes with something close to fond irritation, before dialling up the number both men knew by heart.

Several seconds later and a familiar voice bellowed out through the snail "Marco! Good to hear from you Son, I assume you've got the brat and his crew there with you?" The first division commander let out a small snort of amusement "They're here Pops."

Ace stepped closer to the Den Den Mushi "Hi Pops!" The Emporer chuckled "Hello Son. So what have you and your crew decided?" The freckled teen let a smile grace his face "We've decided that while we'd be honoured to join your main crew we'd like to remain as the Spade pirates for a little bit longer. We would however love to join your assembly of allied crews, and if possible we'd like to sail and train with you for the next few months until we're strong enough to make headway on the new world ourselves."

A slight chuckle emerged from the Den Den Mushi "As you wish my Son. Though know that you're all welcone to join our main crew at any point you wish." Ace let out a blinding smile "Thank you Pops."

The giant let out another chuckle "No problem Brat. Now join Marco and set course for the Moby Dick, now that you're officially our ally I believe a celebration is in order!"

Ace looked at his crew and smiled evilly "Looking forward to it Pop's but before that, would you mind if I borrowed Marco for a day before we set off?" The phoenix in question raised an eyebrow, amusement clear across his face "Wouldn't I get a say in that?"

Whitebeard laughed "I'm sure a day more away from the crew wouldn't hurt Marco. But if im going to share my first mate with you for the day I'd need a reason first." Letting an evil smile grow on his face the young Captain began to explain.

An hour later the Spade pirates, accompanied by Marco the Phoenix, made their way to Saboady. A plan clear in their minds.

 _Author's note_

So _first things first... IM SO SORRY THIS IS LATE I really_ _need_ _to stop making deadlines for myself because coursework keeps interfering._ _Moving on from my horrible organisational abilities thank you all so much for the lovely reviews they really motivate me to keep this story going! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and unfortunately I can make no promise for when the next one will be up due to university work interfering but I will aim to get it up as soon as possible. I can promise some fun reunions in the next chapter though! Feel free to leave a review and thank you all for the favourites and follows :)_


	19. Scheming

No one liked celestial dragons.

This was not a matter of opinion but rather a universally acknowledged fact. And nowhere was that sentiment more evident than in Saboady.

Staring at the colourful streets and fanciful attractions, Ace couldn't help but notice the uneasy fear and barely hidden tension in most of the islands residents.

A sharp poke to the side startled the teen out of his thoughts, turning to face the temporarily borrowed first division commander, Ace let out a small smile of anticipation.

"You sure you want to do this kid?" The freckled teen grinned at the older pirate "I'm sure. Why, you having second thoughts old man?" The phoenix let out a small snort of amusement "Of course not brat, I just figured I'd give you the option. If you fuck this up you're going to be painting a very large target on your back. And trust me when I say you're not prepared to handle that just yet."

Ace smiled reassuringly "Don't worry Birdy I have a plan." the smile morphed into an evil grin "And more importantly by this time tomorrow I'm going to have an alibi as well." The blonde let out an amused chuckle "In that case, lead the way yoi."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sabo was going to kill his brother. He was a _revolutionary_ and aiding his brother in mischief to help give him an alibi was _not_ in his job description. Even if it was for a very good cause.

Sabo ignored Koala's poorly stifled giggles and instead attempted to focus on his current job, whilst doing his level best to ignore the itchy wig and the mountain of concealor currently plastered on his skin.

After hearing Ace's plan, Koala had jumped on the opportunity to help out in anyway she could, she acheived this by happily ignoring Sabo's suggestions for less risky distractions and throwing herself into Ace's scheming.

Knowing he was outnumbered the blonde revolutionary had given into the inevitable and agreed to join the plan. (Silently regretting the circumstances that lead his best friend and brother to ever meet)

As such the two revolutionaries had spent the last few days hopping from island to island making preparations for their plan and were now taking their final steps to invade a heavily secured Marine base. The fact that Sabo had heavily protested against this part of the scheme had been promptly ignored by both his brother and partner.

Turning to face Koala, Sabo let out another resigned sigh "Let's get this over with." The former Sun pirate grinned in the face of her best friend's misery "C'mon Sabo stop looking so gloomy. This is gonna be fun and you know it, besides Ace's crew is gonna need the alibi if they want to pull this off."

Sabo let a small smile slip "You're right about that. This is definitely gonna be worth it if they can pull it off. Just as long as we're far FAR away for the fallout." Koala grinned. "That's the spirit! besides there's no use letting your disguise go to waste so let's do this!"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Sengoku was having a good day.

There had been no Spade related nonsense for the past day or so, Garp had finally quieted down after the fleet commanders _'mandatory officer training sessions'_ and a group of marines had just reported back a successful mission in North Blue. All in all, life was finally starting to look up for the old Marine.

And then came the knock on the door.

A sense of unease overcame the Fleet commander upon realising that he wasn't meant to have any appointments for the next hour.

Shaking off his apprehension the old man yelled a quick "Come in." Only to feel dread curl in his stomach at the uneasy look on the lower ranked Lieutenant's face. Giving a hasty salute the younger marine stared at his superior officer in worry "Fleet Commander, I'm afraid we have something of a... situation."

Mentally preparing himself for a headache that was sure to come, the Old Marine gestured for the yoinger man to elaborate. "Well...you see..." The marine trailed off as if unsure of how to continue "For god's sake man, spit it out already!"

The Lieutenant swallowed nervously "We're being invaded Sir." The fleet Commander was on his feet in an instance, steely anger visible in his eyes "Who by, and how far through the base are they?"

The Lieutenant gave a nervous swallow "By senior citizens sir." Sengoku paused in his anger and turned to stare at the man in slow disbelief "I'm sorry what?"

The Lieutenant continued on, a clearly reluctant look on his face "According to recently provided descriptions, the Spade pirates have spent the past few days spreading leaflets to every retired marine or pirate in the nearby vicinity, advertising a free bingo session at Marineford today."

The fleet Commander silently gestured for the Lieutenant to hand over the leaflet the younger man had brought with him. Staring in dismay a small part of sengoku couldn't help but notice that the leaflet was the same obnoxious shade of orange that the Spades enjoyed spray painting everywhere they went.

The Lieutenant continued on "Security footage shows Lady Spade and a woman currently presumed to be the Queen of hearts subduing the guards this morning and as a result the seniors have now broken through the lower ranks and are currently holding the base's coffee supply as captive until we agree to meet their demands."

Sengoku let out a short growl. "Are you telling me that a group of senior citizens who have been minimally aided by a rookie pirate crew are currently overwhelming the Marine's best and brightest? Where the fuck is Garp and what the hell has he been doing up till now?!"

The Lieutenant let out a nervous cough "Vice Admiral Garp seems to have joined the protesters sir." Sengoku let out a growl of wordless rage. "I don't care what they've been promised. Get. Them. Out."

The younger man seemed to resist the urge to turn and flee "I'm afraid there's still one more problem left to deal with sir. Unfortunately a pack of reporters heard about the issue and have now joined the seniors in their so called 'quest for justice'. Any move you make is going to be shoved straight into the public eye."

Sengoku pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling an upcoming headache "Do we know if the Spades are still in the nearby vicinity?" The younger Marine shook his head "I'm afraid not Fleet Commander. Our last reported sighting of Lady Spade was a full hour ago."

The leader of the Marines barely resisted the urge to scream. "Lieutenant I'm placing you in charge of organising bingo, I'm giving you free permission to involve any Marine ranked below a petty officer. There's nothing to be done about the seniors as long as the reporters are involved so I expect this to be turned into good press for the Marines."

The Lieutenant nodded in acceptance "And one more thing Lieutenant, tell Garp to come to my office. Now." Giving a hurried salute the young Marine ran out the room to fulfill his orders.

Letting out a heavy sigh Sengoku regretted getting out of bed that morning. At least things couldn't get any worse…..

Suddenly the Den Den Mushi connected to the Elder stars began to ring.

Exploding into a series of curses Sengoku wondered (not for the first time) if it was maybe time to consider retirement after all.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Monkey D Dragon was, by nature, a very stoic man. After a lifetime devoted to defying the world government and all that it stood for, there were very few things in the world that merited a change in response from the famously straight faced man.

So really none of the revolutionaries could have been blamed for shifting to apocalypse protocals at the sudden sound of the man cackling at the papers the next morning.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Shanks stared at the paper in amused horror "Benn. I know you complain about me, but even you can't deny I'm nowhere near as bad as Ace is." The first mate of the Red haired pirates stared at the paper in mute shock and gave a slow nod of reluctant agreement, disbelief evident on every line of his face.

"Can't argue with you on that Captain. Are we sure it's the kid's fault though? According to the papers the Spades were busy causing the invasion of Marineford with the whole bingo thing at the time."

Shanks snorted (as hard as they'd tried the Marines hadn't quite managed to hide who was responsible for _that_ particular fiasco).

"The kid probably recruited someone to help out. Besides it's not like there's anyone else crazy enough to pick a fight with a celestial dragon. I mean except maybe Thatch or Haruta from old man Newgate's lot, but I doubt they'd bother to do something like this and then _not_ claim the credit."

Benn nodded in reluctant agreement, still staring in shock at the title and its accompanying picture.

Clear on the front page of every newspaper in the Grand line was the image of a celestial dragon covered in tar and feathers and tied to the tallest tree on the island with the words 'Celestial chicken' written across his forehead. Accompanying the picture was information on how the human auction house had been raised to rubble and all its occupants released.

Benn shook his head in wonderment "My question is how the hell they pulled it off without getting every higher up Marine that side of the Grand Line involved?" Shanks let slip a small grin.

"Well for the Celestial dragon that's a simple enough answer. They never have that much immediate security because according to common sense there's no one dumb enough to attack them anyway. Not to mention that I've not heard anything about Marco going back to his old man yet, so chances are he's still with the kid. And that man can be a _vindictive_ turkey when he wants to be."

Shanks paused a minute to consider "As for the slaves I suppose as long as Ace and Marco cut communications first and set up a perimeter it wouldn't be too hard to stop the Marines being called in. After that it would just be a matter of threatening the guards to get the keys to the explosive slave collars, destroying the building and getting the fuck out of there. The real question is what happened to the slaves afterwards, there's no way the kid left them to fend for themselves."

Benn shook his head, a rueful grin on his clear on his face, "I suppose we'll have to wait and find out, might be worth giving the kid a call. But I mean however mad the kid may be, no one can accuse him of thinking small."

The Emperor grinned in agreement before turning the next page of the paper and letting out a cry of horror "That little Brat!!!" Benn raised an eyebrow inquisitively "What's he done now. Can't get much worse than messing with a Celestial dragon?"

Worldlessly Shanks lifted the page only for Benn to howl in amusement "Well I guess the kid was at least smart enough to doubly cement his alibi."

Grinning at his Captain, Benn decided that as first mate of the red haired pirates it was his solemn duty to frame the article and place it somewhere the crew could enjoy it.

Afterall according to new information (overheard in a supposedly secret meeting between Buggy the clown and Lady Spade) the Red Emperor Shanks had been hopelessly in love with Portgas D Shanksessa for over twenty years but had never told her, due to the pirate's forbidden love of Vice Admiral Garp.

Shanks glared at the paper "I'm offended on so many levels. I know it's not a real person but who the hell would choose a _Marine_ over me?!?!? And _Garp_ at that?!?" Benn burst out laughing.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp glared at the paper once more.

 _That. Damn. Brat._

Not only was the old Marine sore from the extra 'mandatory officer training' that Sengoku had subjected him to after the whole bingo affair, but now Garp was being accused of a relationship with a made up pirate who was actually the Red Emperor's bad attempt at crossdressing.

Letting out a savage grin, Garp couldn't help but laugh. With the recent attack of a Celestial Dragon every high ranked Marine in the area was currently being called to Saboady to investigate. And while the Elder stars might be baying for blood Garp was excited for an entirely different reason.

The Vice Admiral had held off visiting his grandson up till now for fear of drawing attention to him. But at this point not only was Ace's family tree stupidly convoluted, but the teen was probably the most famous rookie of the ages. Meaning that Garp would probably be fine to give the Brat a visit.

The elderly Marine let out an evil laugh. Soon he would have his revenge! (sailing away from Saboady Ace felt a shiver of unease)

Amongst his cackling Garp never noticed the two revolutionaries sneaking onto his boat to catch a lift.

 _Author's note_

 _Hi guys! Thank you all for being so patient as well as so amazing with your reviews and follows, it really motivates me to keep writing!!_

 _I hope you enjoyed the chapter, it's a little bit rough and I'm not quite happy with it but I wanted to try and post something before Christmas so here it is!!!! Unfortunately I didn't quite get round to writing the reunion scene I wanted but needless to say it'll nake its appearance in the next chapter!_

 _ **I'd like to say that I'm almost finished with the main plot of the story but am considering adding a series of drabbles called** Spade Shenanigans **when I'm done either as a seperate fic or just added onto the end of this one so feel free to leave a comment about what you'd prefer!** :D_

 _Merry Christmas everyone and thank you all so much for your support!!!!_


	20. Revolution

Sabo stared at his long-time friend with disbelief clear in his eyes "You _can't_ be serious Koala?" The former sun pirate grinned menacingly at her partner "You know I am Sabo. The man did somewhat raise you after all, I think he at least deserves to know that you're alive."

The former noble gestured over to where his adopted Grandfather was laughing manically at a batch of struggling new recruits whilst scoffing down rice crackers.

"Excellent point Koala, counterpoint, he's going to murder me once he figures out exactly what I've been doing these past few years. Gramps may be an idiot, but he's always had a sixth sense for when we were doing something _'_ _un-marine like'_ as he put it. And if there's anything _worse_ than being a pirate it would probably be being a revolutionary."

Koala let out a small scoff of disbelief "Sixth sense or not, you know you can't escape him forever Sabo. There's absolutely no way in hell Ace isn't planning to throw you under the bus the next time he sees the Vice Admiral anyway."

The top hat wearing revolutionary let out an exaggerated groan "Well you're not wrong there. But that doesn't mean I can't put it off for as long as humanly possible. Besides Hak should be coming to pick us up soon anyway, and after that I can just try and avoid the geezer until he's retired!"

Koala's raised an unimpressed eyebrow "That's a terrible plan. Besides this is your chance to get back at Ace for all the insanity he's subjected you too!" The blond gave his partner a questioning look (making the informed decision not to mention her own part in their recent insanity).

Koala grinned "The Marines are _notorious_ gossips. Meaning if you were to take this opportunity to distract Garp with some harmless rumours about Ace, then whatever you spread is gonna go _straight_ to Marine headquarters. Which basically means that most of the grand line will know all about it by the end of the day."

Sabo grinned in realisation an evil light entering his eyes "I'm listening." The former sun pirate smiled in a way that sent shivers down Sabo's spine and seemed to have far more teeth than strictly necessary.

"Ace can't throw you under the bus to escape Garp if you do it to him first. Besides, I think your brother probably deserves a taste of his own medicine." A calculating gleam entered the blond's eyes and somewhere across the ocean Ace felt the vague urge to flee for his life.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Garp smiled down at his suffering recruits. He was about one day from Sabaody and the old Marine had already made a fool proof plan about how best to track down his Grandson for...training purposes... after he'd finished up his farce of an investigation.

After all, whilst the primary objective of his trip was to ' _find the heinous criminal who dared challenge the authority of the celestial dragons!'_ Garp already knew they wouldn't find anything substantial and couldn't really be bothered wasting his time looking.

He may not have been the sharpest tool in the box, but Garp knew his grandson. And whilst Ace may have procured himself a fairly airtight alibi for the time of the attack, the Vice Admiral knew deep down in his bones that the freckled teen was the one responsible for the assault on the celestial dragon, likely with the Whitebeard's help.

And if that were the case then the old Marine doubted there'd be a shred of evidence left behind. Which meant that this attack (like so many others before it) would most likely be blamed on a convenient revolutionary/pirate so as to preserve the dignity of the world government.

And while the Vice Admiral usually would have been furious about the waste of his time, the old man was more than happy to have an excuse to visit his eldest grandson. Cackling in anticipation the elderly marine was drawn out of his thoughts by a loud yell "Shitty geezer!"

Startling at the unexpected call, Garp turned around fully ready to go and punch whoever had just spoken in the face. Only to freeze at the sight of blond hair, a mischievous smile and familiar features.

"….Sabo?"

The word was barely more than a whisper, but the blond man's smile softened in response as he raised his hand in a small wave "Hi Gramps. It's been a while huh?"

Garp stepped forwards, unable take his eyes off his presumed dead grandson "How?" The teenager's smile turned sheepish as he edged slightly closer to the ships railing "Ah. About that..." The old Marine was overcome with the sudden premonition that he really wasn't going to like whatever the brat said next.

" _Ikindofjoinedtherevolutionaries_. But more importantly Ace got engaged to another pirate without telling you, that scoundrel! Anyway, nice catching up with you Gramps bye!"

"WHAT?!" Not giving the Marine any further time to react, the revolutionary quickly jumped over the side of railing to where Koala and Hak were already waiting to escape "GO GO GO! We want to get out of cannonball range before he figures out precisely what I just yelled at him."

Laughing at her friend's fear, Koala nimbly manoeuvred the escape vessel away from the marine ship, only to burst into full on guffaws at the enraged scream echoing behind them "GOD DAMN IT YOU SHITTY BRAT! HOW DARE YOU NOT JOIN THE MARINES!!!!"

Letting out a shudder of relief at their near escape Sabo grinned at his compatriots. "Time to go home."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Ace stared at the recently liberated slaves of the human auction house with an uncharacteristically serious look of his face.

"Before we start, I want to ask if you're all absolutely sure you want to do this? There's always a risk to this sort of work and there's absolutely no shame if anyone here doesn't wish to help out." An elderly man stepped forwards from the crowd and gave a short nod.

"We understand the risk young man and we appreciate you being honest about it. But in their quest to uphold the will of the celestial dragons, the world government has taken something from each and every one of us. Our freedom, our family, our lives, and we _know_ that a petty prank isn't going to give us any of that back. But it's something. _We will not allow them to make us silent any longer_."

Ace nodded in acknowledgement, a savage grin on his face as he turned around to face the first division Commander of the Whiteboard pirates.

"I know this is a lot to ask, given that we were meant to rendezvous with the rest of the Whitebeard's soon but do you think I could steal Thatch and Haruta to help with some large scale payback before we meet up?"

The Phoenix let out a small snort of amusement "As long as Pops had no objections, I'm sure they'd be delighted to help out. As would I yoi." The Captain of the spade pirates beamed at the older man before turning back to face his audience, an evil grin firmly in place. "Then by all means, let's go make some noise. Time to begin phase one."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Staring at the report in his hand, Sengoku wondered if it was too late to fake his death and move to a tropical island.

No more pirates, no more marines, and most importantly of all _no more paperwork_.

Unfortunately, as much as he wished he could just run off and never look back, the overworked fleet commander was pretty sure Tsuru would find him and drag him back by the ear if he dared to try and escape saddling her with all the work.

Letting out a heavy sigh the golden Buddha reflected on where it all went wrong. The day had been going so well before Garp had called to announce he had arrived at Sabaody.

After conducting a short investigation into the assault of the celestial dragon (upon which Garp had done the _absolute_ minimal amount of work he could possibly get away with) the Vice Admiral had promptly declared the revolutionaries responsible for the attack.

(All the whilst quietly muttering under his breath about grandson stealing bastards).

Garp had then made the decision to call in all of his remaining holiday time for the next year and promptly abandoned his men muttering something about ' _stupid grandkids' 'hidden engagements'_ (Garp promised to elaborate more on that one later) and the so called _'_ _fist of love'._

While the spontaneous holiday hadn't caused much trouble in itself, it did leave the Marines mildly more vulnerable to attacks which was where problem number 2 came in.

Not even five minutes after the start of Garp's impromptu vacation, the fleet commander received an urgent report detailing the destruction of the clothing company responsible for manufacturing the Marines uniform. The culprit had even made sure to destroy every individual item of clothing on the premises.

This by itself may not have been much of an issue except for the fact that someone (and who was he kidding at this point it was almost definitely the Spades fault, everything was nowadays) was also sneaking into Marine bases and destroying whatever uniforms they could get their hands on (the laundry rooms had been hit particularly hard).

Which meant that unless Sengoku wanted all of his men arrested for indecent exposure, he needed to find a suitable uniform substitute pronto. Feeling the urge to bang his head against his desk, Sengoku was about to go find one of the Admiral's for training when Tsuru walked in.

"Please tell me it's good news and you're not here to bring me more paperwork. I'm begging you here." Looking at her old friend in something resembling pity, Tsuru shrugged "I suppose it depends on your definition of good. An anonymous benefactor has just donated a uniform substitute with enough copies to supply the entirety of the Marine force."

The fleet commander sat up and grinned "Oh thank god, the finance department is saved! Distribute them immediately!" The elderly woman hesitated a haunted look in her eyes "I'm afraid I can't allow you to order that until you've seen the new uniform first." Sengoku felt his hopes for an easy solution to his latest problem die a swift and painful death as Tsuru held up a copy of the new uniform.

The Fleet commander stared at the monstrosity of the rainbow coloured Spandex jumpsuit in his old friends' hand and barely resisted the urge to cry.

"That is not a uniform Vice Admiral Tsuru. That is an _abomination_. Is there no other option?! _Literally anything else would do!_ Surely the world government could fast track rebuilding the factory?!" Tsuru shook her head in sorrow, the light dying from her eyes "Not fast enough. It's this or public indecency."

Regretting the fact that he'd ever joined the Marines, Sengoku made his toughest decision yet. And solemnly nodded his head, feeling his dignity as a Marine die as he did so. "So be it. Distribute the uniform."

Somewhere deep inside him Sengoku felt the inexplicable urge to go and murder Garp. This was all his fault somehow, the marine just _knew_ it.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Within a shadowy corner of the Card Deck ship two men huddled around a lone Den Den Mushi.

Looking around in paranoia the slightly shorter of the men turned to face the taller one "Everyone else is asleep right?" The taller man nodded in confirmation "They are yoi." Smiling in relief at the blond man, Dusty turned to dial the number of the final member of their clandestine meeting.

The two men waited in silence as the snail rang out only to smile as the sound of a small click echoed throughout the room "This is Benn." Dusty grinned "Excellent, we're all here then. Without further ado let's start the weekly meeting of the _suffering first mates society_!"

Letting out a soft snort of amusement at the name, the first mate of the red haired pirates spoke up first "Before we start our regularly scheduled bitching about our Captains, I feel like I should pass on my congratulations to Ace."

The other two first mates paused in surprise "What?" The Den Den Mushi's expression mimicked the smirk on Benn's face "According to the latest marine gossip Ace is now engaged to an unknown pirate. No one's been able to identify a culprit yet so if you want to frame anyone in particular role you should probably get a move on."

The grin on Dusty's face sent shivers down the more experienced pirates spines "My thanks for the information Benn. It'll be put to good use."

Staring at the younger man, Marco couldn't quite help but note the slightly crazy look in the cowboy's eyes. It was one all first mates eventually acquired after being pushed too far by their dumbass Captains. It was practically a right of passage, alongside mastering the perfect passive aggressive smile.

Benn chuckled drawing the Phoenix out of his thoughts "You're very welcome. In less entertaining news I should also warn you Garp has just taken a vacation and is most likely heading your way."

All colour drained out of Dusty's face "Oh shit." Marco frowned "Why would Garp be coming here?" the Spade pirate let out a slightly sheepish laugh "Guess the Captain didn't get round to telling you that, Garp is his Grandpa."

The Phoenix froze before letting out a small chuckle "That makes a terrifying amount of sense. We're going need to factor that into our plans tomorrow." Dusty nodded "I'll tell the Captain when he wakes up."

Benn and Marco made noises of agreement before the grey haired man spoke once more "Sounds good, so now that that's out the way let's get onto our regularly scheduled bitching, I want to hear _all about_ the rainbow monstrosities the Marines have been sporting recently!"

Cackling in glee the first mates continued their meeting.

 _Author's note_

 _Holy_ _shit this chapter is way later than I meant it to be I am so sorry it took this long to update!_

 _Ok first of all I need to start off by saying **thank you so much to everyone who left a review you have absolutely no idea how much it means to me they were all incredibly encouraging and I'm so thankful for all the support! You're all amazing!**_

 _Unfortunately exams are coming up so I can't promise when my next update may be but I can promise this story will continue on until it's finished with some extra snippets in a separate story when I find the time!_

 _I hope everyone's staying safe from the virus and that you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll do my best to update when I can!_


End file.
